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THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

BY 

RANDOLPH  S.  BOURNE 


WITH   AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 
WILLIAM  WIRT 


8UPBBINTENDENT  OF   SCHOOLS 
GABY,   INDIANA 


BOSTON   NEW  YORK   CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

ftilicrsiDe  prcs^  Cambridge 


COPYRIGHT,   1916,   BY  RANDOLPH  8.  BOURNS 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
D  .  8  .  A 


LIBRARY 

I  i  OT*TF   TBACHfWS    C- 

8ANTA    BARBARA.    CALIFORNIA 


PREFACE 

THE  public  school  system  of  Gary,  Indiana, 
has  attracted  during  the  last  few  years  the 
general  attention  of  progressive  educators  all 
over  the  country  as  perhaps  the  most  ingen- 
ious attempt  yet  made  to  meet  the  formidable 
problems  of  congested  urban  life  and  modern 
vocational  demands  which  are  presented  to 
the  administrators  of  the  city  school.  A  broad 
educational  philosophy  has  combined  with 
administrative  skill  to  produce  a  type  of 
school  which  represents  a  fundamental  reor- 
ganization of  the  public  school  to  meet  chang- 
ing social  and  industrial  conditions.  A  new 
balance  of  school  activities,  an  increased 
wealth  of  facilities,  the  opening-up  of  oppor- 
tunities to  the  younger  children,  the  institu- 
tion of  a  new  kind  of  vocational  training,  the 
fusing  of  activities  into  an  organic  whole  so 
that  the  school  becomes  a  children's  commu- 
nity, the  correlation  of  school  activities  with 
community  activities,  and  lastly,  the  appli- 
cation of  principles  of  economics  to  public 


hr  PREFACE 

school  management  which  permit  greatly 
increased  educational  and  recreational  facil- 
ities not  only  for  children  in  the  schools, 
but  also  for  adults,  —  these  are  the  features 
of  the  Gary  school  system  that  have  aroused 
the  enthusiasm  of  many  educators,  and  made 
it  one  of  the  most  visited  and  discussed  school 
systems  in  the  country.  Dr.  David  Snedden, 
Commissioner  of  Education  in  Massachusetts, 
has  said  that  the  system  of  education  at 
Gary  "more  adequately  meets  the  needs  of 
city  children  than  any  other  system  of  which 
the  writer  has  knowledge.*'  Professor  John 
Dewey  declared  recently,  at  a  public  meeting 
in  New  York  City,  called  to  discuss  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Gary  plan  in  the  New  York 
schools,  that  "no  more  important  question 
affecting  the  future  of  the  people  of  New  York 
has  come  before  them  for  many  years."  The 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education  in  1914 
published  a  report  on  the  Gary  schools,  made 
after  "a  careful  and  prolonged  study  at  first 
hand"  extending  over  a  period  of  two  years. 
In  this  report  Commissioner  P.  P.  Claxton 
records  his  belief  that  "the  superintendent 
and  board  of  education  of  the  Gary  schools 


PREFACE  v 

have  succeeded  in  working  out  plans  for  a 
more  economic  use  of  school  funds,  a  fuller 
and  more  effective  use  of  the  time  of  the  chil- 
dren, a  better  adjustment  of  the  work  of  the 
schools  to  the  condition  and  needs  of  individ- 
ual children,  greater  economy  in  supervision, 
a  better  correlation  of  the  so-called  *  regular 
work'  and  'special  activities'  of  the  school,  a 
more  practical  form  of  industrial  education, 
and  at  a  cost  less  nearly  prohibitive  than  is 
usually  found  in  public  schools  in  the  cities  of 
this  country." 

Schools  in  many  towns  and  cities  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  have  been  reorganized 
on  the  Gary  plan  or  have  been  experimenting 
with  it.  The  Gary  .plan  has  been  introduced 
in  the  schools  of  small  cities  such  as  Sewickley, 
Newcastle,  and  Swarthmore,  Pennsylvania; 
Kalamazoo,  Michigan;  Winetka,  Illinois. 
Kansas  City  has  been  experimenting  with  it. 
The  Chicago  authorities  have  recently  pro- 
nounced their  two  years'  experiment  an  un- 
qualified success.  Passaic,  New  Jersey,  has 
a  highly  successful  Gary  school  in  opera- 
tion. In  Troy,  New  York,  the  authorities 
are  reorganizing  the  entire  school  system 


vi  PREFACE 

on  the  Gary  plan.  In  New  York  City  two 
schools  were  operated  for  most  of  the 
school  year,  1914-15,  Superintendent  Wirt 
of  Gary  having  been  called  in  to  supervise 
the  reorganization  and  advise  the  Board  of 
Education  in  their  attempt  to  meet  the  "part- 
time"  problems  in  congested  school  districts. 
As  a  result  of  this  experiment  the  Board  of 
Education  has  recently  decided  to  extend  the 
Gary  plan  to  two  school  districts  in  the  Bor- 
ough of  the  Bronx,  involving  fourteen  schools 
and  46,000  pupils.  Superintendent  Wirt  has 
presented  figures  to  show  that,  by  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Gary  plan  and  the  expenditure  of 
only  $5,000,000  (the  cost  of  a  dozen  school 
buildings  which  would  provide  at  the  maxi- 
mum for  20,000  children),  the  New  York 
authorities  could  practically  relieve  their 
part-time  situation  which  now  involves  132,- 
000  children.  Not  only  has  the  success  of  the 
Gary  plan  been  striking  in  the  larger  cities, 
but  it  has  proved  its  adaptability  to  the  small 
school  as  well.  Three  of  the  schools  of  Gary 
are  practically  rural  schools  in  outlying  dis- 
tricts, but  the  principles  of  the  Gary  plan  are 
found  applicable  there  as  well  as  in  the  re- 


PREFACE  vii 

cently  erected  model  school  plants.  The  flexi- 
bility of  the  plan,  the  ingenuity  and  soundness 
of  its  economical  and  educational  principles, 
its  feasibility  of  imitation,  and  adaptation  to 
communities  the  most  diverse,  makes  its  dis- 
cussion one  of  national  significance. 

The  material  on  the  Gary  plan  has  been 
generally  confined  to  bulletins,  magazine 
articles,  and  educational  reports.  One  of  the 
best  discussions  of  the  Gary  school  is  to  be 
found  in  a  chapter  of  Professor  Dewey's  re- 
cent book,  which  contains,  in  addition,  the 
educational  theory  and  historical  background 
upon  which  the  Gary  plan  has  been  worked 
out  by  Superintendent  William  Wirt,  himself 
a  pupil  and  disciple  of  Dewey.  I  give  here  a 
list  of  the  Gary  material  which  I  have  used. 
Some  of  it  is  generally  available,  some  not.  I 
am  much  indebted  to  these  investigators.  I 
have  even  plagiarized  from  myself. 


viii  PREFACE 

Books  and  Bulletins :  — 

John  Dewey  and  Evelyn  Dewey:  Schools  of  To- 
Morrow.  New  York:  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co. 

William  Paxton  Burris:  The  Public  School  System  of 
Gary,  Indiana.  Bulletin  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education  (1914),  No.  18.  (To  be  ob- 
tained free  of  charge  from  the  Commissioner  of 
Education,  Washington,  D.C.)  An  excellent  and 
very  enthusiastic  report  of  a  long  investigation  of 
the  Gary  schools. 

Graham  Romeyn  Taylor:  Satellite  Cities.  New  York: 
D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

Chapters  VI  and  VII  of  this  book  contain  a  com- 
prehensive account  of  the  history  and  social  condi- 
tions of  the  city  of  Gary  up  to  date. 

Magazine  articles :  — 

John  Franklin  Bobbitt:  "The  Elimination  of  Waste 
in  Education."  The  Elementary  School  Teacher, 
February,  1912. 

Charles  S.  Coons:  "The  Teaching  of  Science  in  the 
Gary  Schools."  School  and  Society,  April  17,  1915. 
Able  discussion  of  the  philosophy  which  motivates 
Gary  education,  by  the  teacher  of  chemistry  in 
Froebel  School,  Gary. 

Raymond  Dean  Chadwick:  "Vitalizing  the  History 
Work."  History  Teachers1  Magazine,  April,  1915. 
By  the  history  teacher  in  the  Emerson  School, 
Gary. 

Randolph  S.  Bourne:  "Schools  in  Gary";  "Commu- 
nities for  Children";  "Really  Public  Schools"; 
"Apprentices  to  the  Schools";  "The  Natural 
School."  Five  articles  in  the  New  Republic,  March 
27,  April  3,  April  10,  April  24,  May  1,  1915.  A 
mere  impressionistic  survey  of  the  schools  based 
on  a  personal  visit  in  March,  1915. 


PREFACE  ix 

Reports:  — 

William  Wirt:  A  Report  on  a  Plan  of  Organization  for 
Cooperative  and  Contimiation  Courses.  Department 
of  Education,  City  of  New  York. 

The  Reorganization  of  Public  School  89,  Brooklyn, 
New  York.  Report  made  January  19,  1915,  to 
President  Thomas  W.  Churchill,  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, New  York  City. 

Report  upon  a  Proposed  Reorganization  for  Public 
Schools  28,  2,  42,  6,  59,  U,  5,  53,  W,  32,  4,  and  45, 
The  Bronx,  New  York  City. 

These  three  reports  are  invaluable  as  a  discussion 
of  the  philosophy  and  technique  of  many  of  the 
features  of  the  Gary  plan,  discussed  by  the  Gary 
Superintendent  of  Schools. 

Alice  Barrows-Fernandez :  A  Reply  to  Associate  Super- 
intendent Shallow's  [of  New  York  City]  Report  on 
the  Gary  Schools.  Published  by  the  author,  35  West 
39th  St.,  New  York  City. 

A  valuable  document,  with  a  wealth  of  figures 
and  authoritative  discussion  of  current  misconcep- 
tions regarding  the  work  of  the  Gary  schools. 

R.  S.  B. 

September  1915. 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION  BY  WILLIAM  WIBT     ....  xvii 
I.  THE  COMMUNITY  SETTING 1 

n.  THE  SCHOOL  PLANT:  EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE 
CHILD 13 

The  Gary  plant  the  concrete  embodiment  of  an 
ideal  —  Educating  the  whole  child  by  a  fourfold 
unity  of  activities  —  The  complete  school:  economic 
and  educational  advantages  —  The  school  site: 
playgrounds  for  growth  —  Playgrounds  and  parks  as 
adjuncts  to  the  school  —  Gymnasiums  —  The  school 
halls  as  streets  and  galleries  and  "application"  rooms 
—  Museums,  galleries,  and  libraries  as  adjuncts  to 
the  school  —  Auditorium  as  school  theater  for  ex- 
pression —  Classrooms  as  intellectual  workshops  — 
Art  and  music  studios  —  Science  laboratories  —  In- 
dustrial shops  —  Juxtaposition  and  equal  value  of 
activities  —  Ingenious  designing  of  school  plant  to 
arouse  the  imagination  of  the  child  —  The  fourfold 
division  of  activities  as  worked  out  in  schools  not 
built  on  ideal  lines  —  The  Gary  plan  in  the  small 
school. 

HI.  WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY:  THE  SCHOOL  AS  A 
COMMUNITY 35 

Changed  urban  conditions  demanding  reorganiza- 
tion of  public  school  —  Background  as  described  by 
Professor  Dewey  —  Gary  school  appropriates  wasted 
"street  and  alley  time"  of  children  —  School  activi- 
ties motivated  by  enhancement  of  school  life  — 
Manual-training  shops  as  industrial  shops  for  school 


xii  CONTENTS 

community  —  Children  as  helpers  to  artisan  teachers 

—  Contribution   of    nature-study   departments    to 
school  life  —  Of  domestic  science  —  Of  commercial 
department  —  Auditorium  as  focus  of  school  com- 
munity life  —  School  a  "  clearing-house  for  children's 
activities"  —  School  as  the  children's  institution. 

IV.  PROGRAMS:  THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    57 

Problems  of  economy  to  be  met  —  Solution  by 
application  of  public-service  principles  to  Gary 
schools  —  Impossibility  of  providing  adequate  facili- 
ties without  multiple  use  of  school  plant  —  Abolition 
of  "peak-loads"  —  The  duplicate  schools  —  Old 
program  for  eight-grade  school  —  New  program  — 
"Application"  work  —  Division  of  time  between 
activities  —  The  all-year  school  —  Economies  ef- 
fected by  Gary  plan  —  Evening  schools  —  Social 
and  community  center  —  A  genuinely  "  public" 
school. 

V.  ORGANIZATION 86 

Superintendent  —  Executive  principals  —  Super- 
visors of  instruction  —  Director  of  industrial  work  — 
Assistant  supervisors  —  Departmental  teaching  — 
Distribution  of  teachers  in  unit  school  plant  —  Jun- 
ior and  senior  teachers  —  Training-school  for  visiting 
teachers  and  principals  —  The  "  Register  Teacher  " 

—  Teachers'  hours  —  Promotion  of  pupils  —  Classi- 
6cation  of  pupils  according  to  ability  —  Opportuni- 
ties for  extra  work  —  Lockers  and  classrooms  — 
Special    students  —  Post-graduate    work  —  The 
"  helper  and  observer"  system. 

VI.  CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING        .      .113 

State-prescribed  courses  —  "  Expression  "  work  — 
Correlation  of  subjects  —  Special  features  of  history 


CONTENTS  xiii 

and  geography  work  —  Special  features  of  science 
work  —  Curriculum  as  subjecting  both  "utilitarian" 
and  "cultural"  to  "social"  purposes. 

VII.  DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL      .      .  131 

Children's  pride  in  Gary  school  —  Minimum  of 
formal  discipline  —  Example  of  voluntary  school  — 
Superior  effectiveness  of  discipline  in  Gary  type  of 
school  —  The  school  farm — The  students'  council  — 
No  activities  "extra-curricular"  —  Examples  of 
spontaneous  self-government  —  Dr.  Harlan  Upde- 
graff  on  moral  effect  of  Gary  training  —  Not  obedi- 
ence, but  self-reliance  as  keynote  of  Gary  discipline. 

Vin.  CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS       .      .      .  144 

Economies  of  Gary  plan:  no  extra  burdens  on  pub- 
lic —  Comparisons  of  costs  with  large  city  system 
like  New  York  City  —  Teachers'  criticisms  —  Fea- 
tures of  Gary  plan  which  benefit  teachers  —  Absence 
of  truancy  —  Longer  school  day  no  burden  upon 
pupils  —  Criticisms  of  vocational  work  —  Evalua- 
tions of  Dean  Bums  —  Gary  school  solves  part-time 
problems  —  Gary  school  does  not  subordinate  intel- 
lectual and  cultural  activities  —  Gary  plan  provides 
a  school  adapted  to  every  kind  of  a  child  —  Gary 
vocational  training  of  peculiar  benefit  to  young 
worker  —  Gary  plan  keeps  pupils  in  school  —  Rea- 
sons why  Gary  school  has  national  significance. 

APPENDIX 179 

INDEX  .  203 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  FROEBEL  SCHOOL Frontispiece 

THE  EMEHSON  SCHOOL 14 

THE  SWIMMING-POOL  AT  THE  FllOEBEL  SCHOOL  22 
THE  PRINTING  SHOP  AT  THE  EMERSON  SCHOOL  .  46 
THE  MACHINE  SHOP  AT  THE  EMERSON  SCHOOL  .  88 
THE  HISTORY  ROOM  AT  THE  EMERSON  SCHOOL  .  116 

DRAWING   FROM  A    MODEL   AT   THE    EMERSON 
SCHOOL 140 

THE  FOUNDRY  AT  THE  EMERSON  SCHOOL      .      .  170 


INTRODUCTION 

DURING  the  past  fifteen  years  I  have  tried 
approximately  fifty  different  programs  for 
"work-study-and-play  schools."  The  several 
factors  in  such  a  school  program  can  be  com- 
bined in  countless  ways.  I  have  not  tried  to 
design  a  system  or  type  of  school  program  as 
a  set  form  that  would  constitute  a  universal 
ideal  school  for  all  children.  Rather,  I  have 
tried  to  develop  a  system  of  school  adminis- 
tration that  would  make  possible  the  provid- 
ing of  a  great  variety  of  school  types,  so  that 
all  cities  and  all  of  the  children  in  the  several 
parts  of  a  city  may  have  the  kind  of  school 
they  need. 

I  have  had  only  two  fixed  principles  since 
I  began  establishing  work-study-and-play 
schools  at  Bluffton,  Indiana,  in  the  year 
1900. 

First:  All  children  should  be  busy  all  day 
long  at  work,  study,  and  play  under  right 
conditions. 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

Second:  Cities  can  finance  an  adequate 
work-study-and-play  program  only  when  all 
the  facilities  of  the  entire  community  for  the 
work,  study,  and  play  of  children  are  properly 
coordinated  with  the  school,  the  coordinating 
agent,  so  that  all  facilities  supplement  one 
another  and  " peak-loads"  are  avoided  by 
keeping  all  facilities  of  the  school  plant  in  use 
all  of  the  time. 

At  what  children  work,  study,  and  play; 
how  they  work,  study,  and  play;  when  and 
where  they  work,  study,  and  play;  what  facili- 
ties are  provided  for  work,  study,  and  play; 
and  the  total  and  relative  amount  of  time 
given  to  work,  study,  and  play;  —  these  may 
vary  with  every  city  and  with  every  school  in 
a  city.  No  set  system  can  possibly  meet  the 
needs  of  all  children,  nor  could  a  set  system  be 
uniformly  provided  with  the  existing  child- 
welfare  facilities. 

It  is  not  desirable  or  possible  uniformly  to 
establish  one  particular  scheme  of  depart- 
mentalizing work  between  teachers  or  of  ro- 
tating classes  between  different  types  of  facili- 
ties. The  only  important  thing  is  so  to  depart- 
mentalize teaching  and  so  to  rotate  classes 


INTRODUCTION  rix 

that  the  teachers  may  render  the  greatest 
service  with  the  least  expenditure  of  energy, 
and  that  the  maximum  use  may  be  secured 
from  the  school  plant  and  other  child-welfare 
facilities. 

WILLIAM  WIRT. 


THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 
I 

THE  COMMUNITY  SETTING 

To  set  the  Gary  schools  in  their  proper 
perspective,  one  must  discount  at  the  start 
any  prevailing  impression  that  the  distinctive 
traits  are  due  to  peculiar  local  conditions,  or 
to  the  enlightened  philanthropy  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  which  founded  the 
town  in  1906  as  the  site  for  its  new  plant,  the 
most  complete  system  of  steel  mills  west  of 
Pittsburg.  For  to  the  steel  officials  the  build- 
ing of  the  town  was  incidental  to  the  creation 
of  the  plant.  Gary  in  consequence  is  far  less 
of  a  "satellite  city"  than  other  made-to-order 
towns.  The  opportunity  to  plan  the  city, 
provide  fundamental  necessities  for  commu- 
nity life,  determine  the  character  of  the  hous- 
ing, and  predestine  the  lines  of  growth,  all  in 
the  best  and  most  enlightened  way,  was  taken 
advantage  of  by  the  Steel  Corporation  only  in 
part.  Very  little  of  the  marvelous  science  and 


2  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

engineering  skill  that  went  into  the  making  of 
the  steel  plant  went  into  the  even  more  im- 
portant task  of  creating  a  model  city.  Several 
hundred  houses  were  built,  it  is  true,  for  the 
skilled  labor  and  officialdom  of  the  plants,  but 
practically  no  attempt  was  made  to  house  the 
low-paid  unskilled  labor.  The  result  has  been 
the  development  of  large  tracts  by  land  specu- 
lators, and  all  the  problems  of  congestion  and 
bad  housing  and  sanitation  that  curse  the 
larger  industrial  cities.  The  connection  of  the 
Steel  Corporation  with  the  town  has  been 
throughout  that  of  any  land  and  development 
company.  Communal  problems  have  all  been 
thrown  upon  the  people  themselves  to  solve. 
The  new  community  was  incorporated  as  soon 
as  possible  as  a  municipality  under  the  laws 
of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  has  organized  all 
its  municipal  functions,  including  the  public 
schools,  in  entire  independence  of  the  Steel 
Corporation,  with  which  it  has  had  no  more 
political  or  institutional  connection  than  any 
ordinary  American  town  has  with  its  local 
industrial  interests.  The  Corporation  has  by 
no  means  paid  more  than  its  share  of  the  local 
taxes,  and  the  schools,  in  particular,  have  not 


only  been  quite  free  from  the  Corporation 
influence  or  support,  but  have  even  at  times 
run  so  far  counter  to  the  approval  of  the  Cor- 
poration officials  that  the  school  administra- 
tion has  had  difficulty  in  acquiring  its  needed 
sites  for  new  schools.  It  can  be  emphatically 
said  that  the  schools  of  Gary  are  no  more  the 
product  of  peculiar  conditions  than  are  the 
schools  of  numberless  rapidly  growing  West- 
ern towns. 

The  mushroom  growth  of  Gary  has  not 
meant  a  peculiar  kind  of  a  town,  but  simply 
the  telescoping  into  a  few  years  of  the  typical 
municipal  evils  of  graft,  franchise  fights, 
saloon  dominance,  insufficient  housing  and 
health  regulation,  election  frauds,  and  lack  of 
social  cohesion.  Its  dramatic  growth  has  not 
prevented  its  becoming  a  very  typical  Ameri- 
can city.  In  April,  1906,  Gary  was  a  waste  of 
sand-dunes  and  scrub-oak  swamps  at  the 
southern  end  of  Lake  Michigan.  Three  years 
later  it  had  a  steel  plant  covering  an  area  of  a 
square  mile  and  capable  of  employing  140,000 
men;  it  had  a  population  of  12,000;  15  miles 
of  paved  streets,  25  miles  of  cement  sidewalks, 
$2,000,000  worth  of  residences,  sewer,  water, 


4  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

gas,  and  electric  facilities;  it  had  2  banks,  6 
hotels,  3  dailies,  2  schools,  10  church  denomi- 
nations, 46  lawyers,  24  physicians  —  in 
short,  all  the  paraphernalia  of  the  modern 
city.  The  visitor  who  goes  to-day  to  Gary 
finds  a  typically  varied  American  city,  rather 
better  built  than  the  average,  and  rather  un- 
usually favored  in  its  open  spaces.  Situated 
within  thirty  miles  of  Chicago,  the  city  pre- 
sents a  rather  pleasing  contrast  to  the  long 
chain  of  industrial  towns  that  stretches  for 
miles  in  every  direction  across  the  treeless 
prairie.  With  a  well-built  business  section, 
lines  of  residence  streets,  handsome  public 
buildings  and  churches,  electric  cars  and  taxi- 
cabs,  Gary  has  'a  settled  air  of  community  life 
unusual  even  for  an  older  town.  It  has  almost 
the  aspect  of  a  commercial  rather  than  an 
industrial  center.  It  is  the  focus  of  the  county 
trade,  and  the  extent  of  its  business  and  mid- 
dle-class residential  districts  is  somewhat 
larger  than  in  neighboring  towns.  The  steel 
mills  and  subsidiary  plants  are  massed  along 
the  lake  and  the  artificially  constructed  har- 
bor. The  great  immigrant  population,  largely 
of  cheap  and  illiterate  proletarian  labor  from 


THE  COMMUNITY  SETTING  5 

southeastern  Europe,  inhabits  the  congested 
district  of  the  South  Side.  The  mills  are  sepa- 
rated from  the  town  by  a  small  river  which 
forms  almost  a  moat  for  the  great  industrial 
fortress.  The  town  is  laid  out  in  checkerboard 
fashion,  with  a  wide  main  avenue  a  hundred 
feet  wide  and  cross-streets  sixty  feet  wide. 
Alleys  run  the  long  way  of  the  blocks,  and 
contain  the  sewer  and  water  mains.  Ethnolog- 
ically  the  population  is  very  mixed.  Thirty 
nationalities  are  said  to  be  represented  in  the 
schools,  but  this  large  foreign  population  is  a 
familiar  phenomenon  in  the  American  indus- 
trial town.  A  rough  census  taken  in  1908 
gave  the  foreign  population  of  Gary  as  fifty- 
six  per  cent  of  the  whole.  In  1912  it  was  only 
forty  per  cent,  or  a  decrease  of  sixteen  per 
cent.  The  alien  influx  has  not  destroyed  the 
essentially  characteristic  American  features 
of  the  city.  The  native  American  element  has 
always  predominated  politically  and  socially. 
For  an  American  city  of  its  size  to-day,  Gary 
represents,  not  a  specialized  community,  but 
a  fairly  harmonious  distribution  of  social 
classes,  races,  occupations,  and  interests.  It 
is  essentially  a  normal,  variedly  functioning, 


6  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

independent  community,  and  the  schools 
have  been  developed  to  meet  the  needs  of  a 
modern  varied  urban  community. 

It  must  be  emphasized  that  neither  the 
demands  of  a  peculiar  type  of  industrial  com- 
munity nor  the  work  of  benevolent  philan- 
thropy created  the  schools  of  Gary.  They 
have  been  developed  in  response  to  the  typi- 
cally current  needs  of  a  normal  American 
municipality.  They  have  had  to  meet  the 
same  situations  which  all  American  cities  are 
confronting  in  their  effort  to  educate  "  all  the 
children  of  all  the  people." 

Organized  under  a  school  administration 
consisting  of  a  board  of  education  with  three 
members  working  in  conjunction  with  a  su- 
perintendent of  schools,  the  school  system 
depends  for  support  entirely  upon  local  taxa- 
tion and  the  usual  sources  of  revenue,  and 
enjoys  no  unusual  municipal  or  financial  ad- 
vantages. On  the  contrary,  the  enterprise  of 
providing  public  schools  for  the  town  of  Gary 
was  one  of  peculiar  difficulty.  The  new  and 
rapidly  growing  town  required  the  immediate 
creation  of  a  school  plant,  in  addition  to  the 
annual  cost  of  instruction  and  maintenance. 


THE  COMMUNITY  SETTING  7 

The  community  was  poor.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  people,  being  recently  arrived  immi- 
grants, owned  no  taxable  property.  The 
plants  of  the  Steel  Corporation,  the  most  valu- 
able property  in  the  community,  were  habit- 
ually undervalued  in  the  assessments.  The 
state  laws,  moreover,  provide  that  school  rev- 
enues for  any  given  year  are  to  be  obtained 
on  an  assessment  made  almost  two  years  be- 
fore. The  result  in  a  new  city  like  Gary, 
where  the  population  had  been  doubling  each 
year,  was,  therefore,  that  current  school  reve- 
nues had  to  be  based  on  assessment  values 
obtained  when  the  population  was  only  one 
quarter  as  great. 

In  the  face  of  all  these  formidable  difficul- 
ties the  success  of  the  Gary  school  system 
seems  little  short  of  amazing.  In  the  short 
space  of  eight  years  the  population  has  in- 
creased from  three  hundred  to  over  thirty 
thousand.  No  ordinary  city  would  attempt 
to  supply  school  facilities  to  a  population 
which  doubled  every  year.  The  mere  physical 
problem  of  providing  seats  for  the  children 
would  be  insurmountable.  A  city  which  fol- 
lowed the  conventional  school  plan  would  be 


8  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

swamped.  At  the  present  time,  with  their 
much  slower  yearly  increase  of  population, 
half  of  the  cities  of  over  one  hundred  thousand 
in  this  country  have  insufficient  sittings  for 
their  children. 

Yet  with  its  leaping  movement  of  popula- 
tion the  city  of  Gary  has  been  able  to  provide 
not  only  full-time  instruction  for  every  child, 
but  actually  a  longer  school  day.  It  has  not 
only  done  this,  but  it  has  provided  evening- 
school  instruction  for  an  even  greater  number 
of  adults.  There  is  something  pardonable  in 
the  Gary  boast  that  every  third  person  in  the 
city  goes  to  school.  And  Gary  has  succeeded 
not  only  in  giving  this  universal  schooling, 
but  in  making  it  what  is  probably  the  most 
varied  and  stimulating  elementary  public- 
school  instruction  in  the  United  States,  with 
an  equipment  in  buildings  and  facilities  for 
work,  study,  and  play  which  is  surpassed,  if 
anywhere,  only  in  specially  favored  com- 
munities. All  this  has  been  done  with  a  nor- 
mal tax-rate,  and  at  a  per-capita  cost  of  both 
construction  and  maintenance  no  greater  than 
that  in  the  city  of  Chicago  and  the  city  of 
New  York,  with  their  many  overcrowded 


THE  COMMUNITY  SETTING  9 

and  poorly  equipped  school-buildings.  The 
Gary  schools,  at  the  same  time,  have  paid 
the  highest  teachers'  salaries  in  the  State. 
The  entire  achievement  has  been  as  brilliant 
as  the  difficulties  confronted  were  formidable. 
It  is  these  remarkable  results  that  have 
focused  the  attention  of  so  many  educators  on 
Gary,  and  it  will  be  the  purpose  of  this  book 
to  expound  the  "unique  and  ingenious  syn- 
thesis of  educational  influences"  which  has 
made  them  possible.  If,  then,  in  the  course  of 
eight  years,  the  schools  of  Gary  have  acquired 
a  wide  reputation  as  a  momentous  educational 
experiment  which  has  passed  into  successful 
demonstration,  the  fact  must  be  laid  entirely 
to  the  abilities  of  the  school  authorities,  and 
not  to  any  adventitious  factors  of  the  com- 
munity situation  or  of  private  assistance. 
The  dominating  factor  was  the  personal  gen- 
ius of  the  superintendent,  William  Wirt,  who 
was  called  to  Gary  in  1908  from  Bluffton, 
Indiana,  where  he  had  been  in  charge  of  the 
public  schools,  and  where  he  had  partly 
worked  out  some  of  the  ideas  which  he  was 
later  to  develop  so  comprehensively  in  the 
Gary  schools.  When  it  is  objected  that  the 


10  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

Gary  plan  is  an  experiment,  and  that  eight 
years  are  scarcely  sufficient  time  to  pronounce 
upon  its  merits,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  real  experimental  stage  of  the  Gary  plan 
consisted  in  the  eight  years  in  Bluffton.  Mr. 
Wirt  came  to  Gary  with  his  educational 
ideas  matured  after  this  long  testing.  He 
was  brought  to  Gary  by  the  unusually  pro- 
gressive mayor  and  school  board  of  the  new 
town,  for  the  express  purpose  of  working  out 
on  a  large  scale  the  principles  which  they 
had  seen  in  concrete  application  at  Bluffton. 
Against  the  financial  meagerness  of  the 
town's  resources  and  the  obstructiveness  of 
the  founders  must,  therefore,  be  set  the  ad- 
vantage of  having  a  virgin  field  in  which  to 
work.  The  superintendent  and  school  board 
were  able  in  a  remarkably  short  time  to  build 
up  a  public  interest  and  support  which  has 
been  a  very  large  asset.  The  people  of  Gary 
seem  proud  of  their  schools,  and  seem  to  ap- 
preciate the  comprehensive  educational  and 
recreational  facilities  which  through  them 
are  provided  for  both  children  and  adults. 
Few  educational  experiments  have  been  so 
successful  in  technique  and  in  popular  sup- 


THE  COMMUNITY  SETTING  11 

port.  The  Gary  schools  represent  the  fruit  of 
a  very  unusual  combination  of  educational 
philosophy,  economic  engineering,  and  polit- 
ical sagacity.  Circumstances  seem  to  have 
conspired  to  produce  a  school  system  which 
unites  a  very  remarkable  school  plant  with  a 
synthesis  of  novel  plans  of  operation  which 
are  fertile  in  suggestion  to  school  men,  if 
they  do  not  tend  to  revolutionize  many 
methods  of  financing  public  schools  as  well 
as  methods  of  administration  and  teaching. 

This  outline  of  the  setting  of  the  Gary 
schools  scarcely  puts  the  background  in  its 
correct  light.  When  we  speak  of  the  "Gary 
school"  we  are  really  talking  about  something 
bigger  than  the  educational  system  of  a  small 
Western  city.  What  we  have  to  deal  with  is 
an  educational  idea,  a  comprehensive  plan 
for  the  modern  public  school,  capable  of  gen- 
eral imitation  and  adaptation  to  the  needs  of 
other  American  communities.  In  this  sense 
it  means  primarily  what  Superintendent  Wirt 
thought  a  public  school  should  be.  Being  at 
once  a  social  engineer  and  educational  philos- 
opher, he  has  succeeded  in  working  out  a  type- 
plan  of  public  school  which  to  many  educators 


12  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

appears  uniquely  valuable  in  American  public 
education.  The  discussion  which  follows  at- 
tempts to  describe  the  Gary  schools  from  this 
larger  point  of  view.  The  effort  is  to  show  in 
detail  how  the  plan  actually  works  in  the 
schools  of  Gary,  while  at  the  same  time  to  sug- 
gest the  larger  ideas  and  principles  which  have 
motivated  it.  The  "  Gary  plan  "  represents,  of 
course,  not  only  what  has  been  done  in  Gary, 
but  its  further  implications  and  tendencies,  as 
well  as  the  developments  and  modifications 
now  working  out  in  those  schools,  such  as  the 
group  in  New  York  City,  which  have  been  put 
in  the  hands  of  the  Gary  authorities  for  reor- 
ganization. 


n 

THE  SCHOOL  PLANT:  EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE 
CHILD 

THIS  children's  community,  as  worked  out 
by  Mr.  Wirt  in  the  Gary  schools,  is  a  work- 
study-and-play  school  of  the  most  varied 
kind.  It  represents,  in  fact,  an  ideal  school 
plant  which  was  well  outlined  in  Mr.  Wirt's 
mind  when  he  first  came  to  Gary.  Schools  like 
the  magnificent  Emerson  and  Froebel  plants 
in  Gary,  and  the  new  Pestalozzi  School,  for 
which  plans  have  already  been  drawn  and  the 
site  bought,  represent  the  working-out  in 
concrete  form  of  this  ideal.  At  the  same  time, 
it  must  be  understood  that  the  essential  fea- 
tures of  the  Wirt  plan  are  possible  in  schools 
which  were  not  built  from  the  ideal  plan. 
Perhaps  Mr.  Wirt's  greatest  triumph  in  Gary 
is  not  these  new  schools,  but  the  old  Jefferson 
School,  which  he  found  when  he  came  to  the 
town,  and  which,  by  ingenious  remodeling,  he 
turned  from  a  conventional  school-building 
into  a  completely  functioning  school.  If  the 


14  THE   GARY  SCHOOLS 

Wirt  plan  is  momentous  as  showing  what  a 
really  modern  public  school  should  embody,  it 
is  no  less  momentous  in  showing  how  easily 
the  old  type  of  schoolhouse  may  be  adapted 
to  the  varied  life  of  the  school  community 
that  is  the  Wirt  school. 

It  will  first  be  necessary  to  describe  the 
ideal  school  plant  as  represented  in  the  Emer- 
son and  Froebel  Schools  in  Gary.  This  plant 
carries  out  a  belief  in  educating  the  whole 
child,  physically,  artistically,  manually,  scien- 
tifically, as  well  as  intellectually.  Mr.  Wirt 
believes  that  by  putting  in  the  child's  way  all 
the  opportunities  for  varied  development,  the 
child  will  be  able  to  select  those  activities  for 
which  he  is  best  suited,  and  thus  develop  his 
capacities  to  their  highest  power.  This  can  be 
done  only  in  a  school  which  provides,  besides 
the  ordinary  classrooms,  also  playgrounds  and 
gardens,  gymnasiums  and  swimming-pools, 
special  drawing  and  music  studios,  science 
laboratories,  machine  shops,  and  intimate 
and  constant  contact  with  supplementary 
community  activities  outside  the  school.  The 
Wirt  school  is  based  on  a  fourfold  unity  of 
interests,  —  play  and  exercise,  intellectual 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       15 

study,  special  work  in  shop  and  laboratory, 
etc.,  and  social  and  expressive  activity  in  au- 
ditorium or  outside  community  agency. 

Between  these  activities  there  is  no  invidi- 
ous distinction.  The  manual  and  artistic  are 
not  subordinated  to  the  intellectual,  as  in  the 
ordinary  school.  The  "special  activities"  are 
not  mere  trimmings  to  the  "regular  work," 
but  neither  is  the  latter  neglected  in  favor  of 
the  former.  The  ideal  of  the  Wirt  plan  is  that 
the  child  should  have  every  day,  in  some  form 
or  other,  contact  with  all  the  different  activi- 
ties which  influence  a  well-rounded  human 
being,  instead  of  meeting  them  perfunctorily 
once  or  twice  a  week,  as  in  the  ordinary  school. 
This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  every 
child  is  expected  to  develop  into  a  versatile 
genius,  equally  able  in  science  and  music  and 
shopwork  and  history.  Most  children  are 
sternly  limited  in  then*  capacities,  and  will  be 
unable  to  assimilate  more  than  a  small  part  of 
what  the  school  offers  them.  But  the  Wirt 
school  definitely  offers  the  opportunity.  If 
there  are  capacities,  they  have  the  chance  to 
develop,  while  no  child  need  lack  that  speak- 
ing acquaintance  with  the  varied  interests  of 


16  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

work  and  study  which  now  the  old  tradi- 
tional type  of  school  so  tragically  denies. 

It  is  an  essential  feature  of  the  Wirt  scheme 
that  this  varied  work  be  provided  for  all  the 
children  from  the  earliest  possible  years.  The 
lavish  equipment  of  the  ideal  Wirt  school 
plant  may  be  paralleled  in  other  communities 
than  Gary,  but  it  is  paralleled  only  in  the  case 
of  the  secondary  schools.  It  is  a  notorious  fact 
that,  of  the  children  who  begin  the  American 
public  school,  only  one  fifth  ever  reach  even 
the  first  year  of  the  high  school.  So  far  it  is  the 
high  school  or  the  highest  grammar  grades 
that  have  received  practically  all  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  broadening  educational  endeavor, 
—  vocational  training,  science  laboratory 
work,  the  study  of  civics,  domestic  science, 
etc.  This  means  that  the  vast  majority  of 
school-children  leave  school  with  nothing 
but  the  barest  intellectual  training,  without 
ever  having  come  in  contact  with  points  of 
view  and  ways  of  doing  things  that  are  ab- 
solutely essential  to  any  understanding  or 
effectiveness  in  the  world  above  the  very  low- 
est. Against  this  fundamentally  undemocratic 
system,  which  denies  help  to  those  who  need 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD        17  ! 

it  most,  the  Wirt  plan  resolutely  sets  its 
face. 

The  ideal  Wirt  school  contains  in  one  school 
plant  the  complete  school,  with  all  the  classes 
from  the  kindergarten  through  the  common 
school  and  high  school. 

By  this  plan  both  economic  and  educational 
advantages  are  realized.  From  an  economic 
point  of  view,  it  is  cheaper  to  have  large,  com- 
pletely equipped  centers  than  to  duplicate  the 
equipment  in  a  number  of  smaller  centers. 
From  an  educational  point  of  view,  it  enables 
pupils  to  bridge  the  chasm  between  the  ele- 
mentary grades  and  the  high  school.  By 
ceasing  to  make  the  high  school  a  separate 
institution  to  be  "entered"  or  "graduated 
from,"  pupils  find  no  place  to  stop  when  they 
have  completed  the  eight  grades. 

The  complete  school,  Mr.  Wirt  believes, 
offers  important  moral  gains.  "The  develop- 
ment of  character,  habits  of  industry,  relia- 
bility, good  health,  and  the  growth  of  intelli- 
gence require  time,"  he  says,  "and  must  be  a 
continuous  process  throughout  the  entire  life 
of  the  child."  The  complete  school  gives  an 
opportunity  for  that  cooperation  or  "appren- 


18  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

ticeship"  between  the  younger  and  older 
children,  which  is  so  important  a  feature  of 
the  Wirt  school,  and  this  association  breaks 
down  the  snobbery  of  age  which  causes  so 
much  unhappiness  in  childhood. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  in  Gary,  owing  to 
the  progressive  mortality  in  attendance  which 
is  common  everywhere,  it  is  possible  to  realize 
the  complete  school  only  in  the  Emerson  and 
Froebel  plants.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be 
remembered  that  these  schools  care  for  three 
quarters  of  the  school-children  of  the  town. 
In  the  elementary  schools  which  Mr.  Wirt  is 
reorganizing  in  New  York,  he  is  asking  that 
there  shall  be  included  at  least  two  of  the  high- 
school  years,  in  order  that  the  complete  school 
may  be  approximated  as  closely  as  possible. 
In  Gary,  they  are  working  for  a  school  which 
is  even  more  than  "complete,'*  for  they  aim  to 
include  even  the  first  year  and  perhaps  even 
the  second  of  the  ordinary  college  course. 
Stretching  down  boldly  past  the  kindergarten 
to  a  nursery  for  babies,  and  up  into  the  college 
itself,  the  Wirt  school  thus  gives  a  fundamen- 
tally new  orientation  to  education,  shows  it 
graphically  and  practically  as  a  continuous 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       19 

process,  and  breaks  down  those  artificial  bar- 
riers by  which  we  measure  off  "education," 
and  make  it  easy  for  people  to  "finish"  it. 
The  Wirt  school  seems  definitely  to  forecast 
the  day  when  the  public  school  will  have 
swallowed  the  college,  and  the  "higher  educa- 
tion" will  have  become  as  local  and  available 
as  the  three  R's. 

If  the  school  is  to  educate  the  whole  child, 
the  first  need  is  evidently  a  place  for  him  to 
grow.  "The  best  of  education,"  says  Profes- 
sor Terman,  "is  but  wisely  directed  growth." 
"The  activities  of  a  child,"  says  Professor 
Dewey,  "are  the  means  by  which  he  becomes 
acquainted  with  his  world,  and  by  which  he 
learns  the  use  and  limits  of  his  own  powers." 
The  lack  of  free  activity  in  the  conventional 
school  has  been  the  major  cause  of  those 
symptoms  of  morbidity  which  school  hygien- 
ists  have  brought  to  the  attention  of  educators 
within  the  last  few  years.  Over-pressure  and 
confinement  have  made  the  school  a  manu- 
factory for  evils  which  the  next  generation  will 
look  back  to  with  amazement  at  the  blindness 
of  the  educational  world  which  permitted  it. 


20  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

The  ideal  school  will  make  the  playground 
the  very  center  of  its  life.  The  school  in  the 
Wirt  plan  covers  a  site  of  from  ten  to  twenty 
acres.  Actually  the  Emerson  School  in  Gary 
has  ten  acres;  Froebel  has  twelve;  the  new 
Tolleston  site  covers  twenty  acres.  Of  this 
ideal  site  of  twenty  acres,  ten  acres  in  front  of 
the  school-building  are  purchased  by  the  city 
and  maintained  by  it  as  an  open  public  square 
or  small  park.  The  remaining  ten  acres  are 
bought  by  the  school  for  the  building  site  and 
playgrounds.  It  is  the  intention  hi  Gary  to 
have  these  park-school  playgrounds  distrib- 
uted over  the  city  so  that  few  families  will 
live  more  than  half  a  mile  away  from  one  of 
them. 

It  is  a  cardinal  principle  of  the  Wirt  plan 
that  the  parks  and  playgrounds  of  a  city 
should  be  placed  as  adjuncts  of  the  schools.  It 
is  the  schools  that  they  primarily  serve  and 
it  is  with  the  schools  that  they  should  be 
grouped.  Millions  of  dollars  have  been  wasted 
in  the  public-playground  movement  in  this 
country  through  disregard  of  this  fact.  There 
is  a  good  story  of  a  Chicago  playground  in- 
structor who,  when  asked  if  the  playgrounds 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD      21 

cooperated  with  the  schools,  replied,  "Sure 
we  do!  If  we  see  any  kid  on  here  between 
nine  and  three,  we  chase  him  off!"  This  is 
symbolic  of  the  lack  of  intelligent  coopera- 
tion between  child-welfare  agencies.  It  is  this 
wasteful  and  ineffective  situation  which  the 
Wirt  plan  remedies  by  boldly  annexing  park 
and  playground  to  the  school  itself.  A  com- 
parison of  the  Chicago  playgrounds  with  the 
Gary  school  playgrounds  shows  the  im- 
mensely greater  public  service  rendered  under 
the  Wirt  scheme.  Chicago  has  one  of  the 
most  elaborate  systems  of  recreation  parks 
and  field-houses  in  the  country.  Yet  in  a  dis- 
trict only  one  fortieth  the  size  of  the  Chicago 
district,,  one  Gary  school,  providing  for  both 
children  and  adults,  gave  indoor  gymna- 
sium work  to  three  times  as  many  people; 
shower-baths  to  one  third  as  many;  outdoor 
gymnasium  to  an  equal  number;  the  use  of 
swimming-pools  to  half  as  many;  use  of  the 
assembly  halls  to  four  times  as  many;  and  to 
as  many,  the  use  of  clubrooms  and  reading- 
rooms.  Thus,  in  educating  the  child's  body, 
and  giving  him  space  to  grow  and  play,  the 
Wirt  school  enormously  increased  the  oppor- 


22  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

tunities  of  every  one  in  the  district,  old  and 
young>  to  secure  the  same  advantages. 

The  ideal  Wirt  school  plant,  such  as  the 
Emerson  School  in  Gary,  in  its  open  space  of 
ten  acres,  besides  its  playground  filled  with  ap- 
paratus, has  gardens,  tennis  courts,  ball  fields, 
running  tracks,  and  handball  courts.  For  the 
younger  children  there  are  wading-pools  and 
sandpits.  One  field  is  arranged  so  that  it  may 
be  flooded  in  winter  for  skating.  There  are 
two  acres  of  school-gardens,  and  a  cluster  of 
cages  and  houses  for  the  animals  of  the  school 
zoo.  The  outdoor  equipment  is,  in  other 
words,  on  the  scale  of  a  college  or  a  wealthy 
private  school  which  can  afford  spacious 
grounds  and  provision  for  every  athletic 
sport.  The  Gary  schools  are,  however,  public 
schools,  and  these  facilities  are  open  to  all  the 
children  of  all  ages  and  all  the  time. 

It  is  customary  for  our  newer  high  schools 
to  have  gymnasiums,  but  the  common  school 
is  rarely  provided  for.  In  the  Wirt  school,  the 
common  school  shares,  of  course,  in  the  exten- 
sive gymnasium  equipment.  The  Emerson 
School  has  two  gymnasiums,  one  for  boys  and 
one  for  girls.  It  has  also  a  large  swimming- 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       23 

pool.  The  Froebel  School  has  two  gymna- 
siums and  two  swimming-pools.  The  Jefferson 
School  has  a  large  gymnasium,  though  only 
the  common  school  is  provided  for  in  the  Jef- 
ferson. The  other  Gary  schools  all  have  gym- 
nasiums proportionate  to  their  size.  In  the 
new  school  plants  it  is  intended  to  build  per- 
golas about  the  inner  court  which  will  contain 
open-air  classrooms  and  additional  outdoor 
gymnasium  space.  Nothing  is  omitted  which 
will  provide  the  right  physical  conditions  for 
the  child's  growth  and  development  from  his 
earliest  years. 

Coming  to  the  school  building  itself,  we  find 
in  the  Emerson  and  Froebel  Schools  archi- 
tectural creations  of  unusual  beauty  and  im- 
pressiveness.  The  school  building  is  built 
around  a  great  court,  with  broad  halls  as  wide 
as  streets,  and  well  lighted  from  the  court. 
These  broad  halls  serve  not  only  as  the  school 
streets  for  the  constant  passage  of  the  children 
between  their  work,  but  also  as  centers  for  the 
"application"  work,  or  for  informal  study. 
They  are  so  wide  that  all  confusion  is  avoided, 
and  they  suggest  to  the  visitor  that  they  serve 
the  school  community  in  the  same  way  that 


24  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

the  agora  or  forum  did  the  ancient  city.  In 
the  Emerson  School  the  beginning  of  an  art 
gallery  has  been  made.  It  suggests  the  idea 
that  just  as  the  schools  ought  to  absorb  the 
playgrounds,  so  they  ought  to  absorb  the 
museums  and  galleries.  Pictures  and  objects 
of  art  and  interest  become  unreal  and  artifi- 
cial when  immured  in  isolated  museums, 
which  can  be  visited  only  at  special  times  and 
with  effort.  They  should  be  at  hand  in  the 
school,  fertilizing  and  beautifying  every  mo- 
ment of  its  daily  life.  The  artistic  sense  can 
be  cultivated  only  by  bringing  children  into 
contact  daily  and  almost  unconsciously  with 
beautiful  things.  The  schools  themselves  must 
be  art  galleries,  and  these  fine  corridors  of  the 
Wirt  school  indicate  the  way  by  which  a 
wholly  new  orientation  is  to  be  given  to  our 
public  galleries  by  using  them  as  adjuncts  to 
the  education  of  children. 

Similarly  with  museums.  The  teaching  of 
the  Gary  schools,  based  fundamentally  on 
concrete  things  and  processes,  needs  to  be 
constantly  in  touch  with  the  objects  which  it 
is  our  custom  to  store  in  dead  museums.  The 
school  museum  is  an  essential  feature  of  the 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       25 

Wirt  school.  The  Wirt  plan  does  not  con- 
template the  taking  of  children  docilely  about 
to  visit  museums,  as  some  progressive  teach- 
ers are  doing.  It  contemplates  bringing  the 
museums  into  the  schools,  so  that  the  children 
can  know  the  treasures  and  live  with  them 
and  learn  about  them. 

And  similarly  with  libraries.  Mr.  Wirt  be- 
lieves that  the  school  may  do  the  work  of  the 
public  library  much  more  efficiently  and 
much  more  economically  than  the  library  can 
itself  do  it.  He  has  shown  in  Gary  that  in  a 
school  branch  of  the  public  library,  library 
maintenance  and  circulation  cost  per  book 
circulation  is  only  about  five  per  cent  of  the 
cost  in  the  main  library,  while  the  life  of  the 
book  circulated  in  sets  under  the  control  of 
the  teachers  is  ten  times  that  of  the  usual 
circulation  book  in  the  library.  In  both  the 
Emerson  and  Froebel  Schools  there  is  a 
branch  of  the  public  library,  under  a  library 
assistant.  Children  use  the  library  as  a  part  of 
their  regular  work  under  the  supervision  of 
the  assistant  and  teachers.  All  sorts  of  stere- 
oscopic pictures,  photographs,  collections  of 
pictures,  atlases,  etc.,  can  thus  be  provided, 


26  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

which  would  be  impossible  for  the  classroom. 
The  library  becomes  the  storehouse  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  school,  and  the  children 
learn  to  recognize  it  as  such.  Again,  the  li- 
brary is  already  an  important  feature  of 
many  of  the  newer  high  schools  throughout 
the  country.  In  the  Wirt  school,  however,  all 
the  elementary  classes  use  it  also. 

The  Wirt  school  contemplates  bringing  all 
the  cultural  resources  of  the  community  to 
bear  on  the  school.  It  makes  the  school  the 
proper  and  natural  depository  for  whatever 
the  community  has  to  offer  in  artistic  interest 
or  intellectual  resource.  Like  most  of  the 
features  of  the  Wirt  plan,  this  consolidation 
of  gallery,  museum,  and  library  in  the  school 
is  as  economically  efficient  as  it  is  educa- 
tionally valuable. 

A  word  must  be  said  about  the  auditorium. 
Few  schools  have  assembly  rooms  like  that 
in  the  Froebel  School  in  Gary,  with  its  stage 
large  enough  for  a  full-sized  basketball  game 
or  athletic  contest.  The  unique  r6le  of  the 
auditorium  in  the  Wirt  school  will  be  de- 
scribed in  the  next  chapter.  It  assists  materi- 
ally in  educating  the  whole  child  by  giving 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       27 

him  opportunities  for  public  expression  be- 
fore the  school  community. 

The  classrooms  in  the  ideal  Wirt  school  are 
much  more  attractive  than  the  ordinary  class- 
rooms, far  less  formal  and  far  less  crowded. 
In  some  of  them  the  old-fashioned  school  desk 
and  seat  have  been  retained,  largely,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Wirt,  to  meet  the  prejudice  of  the 
parents.  Owing  to  the  frequent  change  and 
movement  of  classes,  however,  this  peculiarly 
flagrant  instrument  of  educational  perversity 
does  little  harm.  Many  of  the  lower  grades 
have  a  desk,  made  in  the  school,  which  is  a 
kind  of  workbench.  These  desks  have  vises 
attached,  and  loose  tops,  which  can  be  read- 
ily replaced  when  soiled  or  worn  out.  The 
seat  is  a  four-legged  stool,  which  can  be 
pushed  out  of  the  way  when  the  child  is  using 
his  desk  for  a  workbench.  On  occasion  the 
children  can  take  up  their  stools  and  desk- 
tops and  go  off  to  work  in  the  halls  or  garden. 
Such  a  room  is  an  ideal  classroom,  with  its 
hint  of  the  workshop  and  its  lack  of  rigidity. 
In  the  history  room  in  the  Emerson  School 
are  broad  tables  that  can  be  used  for  map- 
drawing.  The  idea  is  to  give  to  each  class- 


28  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

room  the  physical  setting  and  the  furniture 
which  will  best  enable  a  particular  kind  of 
work  to  be  done  there.  The  result  is  that  the 
classrooms  of  the  Wirt  schools  have  a  charac- 
ter of  their  own,  quite  different  from  the  color- 
less and  depressing  effect  of  the  ordinary 
classroom.  They  are  not  merely  rooms  where 
children  study  together  and  tamely  recite,  but 
essentially  workshops  where  children  do  inter- 
esting things  with  their  minds,  just  as  in  the 
shops  they  do  interesting  things  with  their 
hands.  The  history  room  is  a  real  history 
laboratory.  Maps  and  charts  made  by  the 
pupils  cover  the  walls,  magazines  lie  about, 
pictures  and  books  overflow  the  tables.  The 
visitor  realizes  that  he  is  in  a  room  saturated 
with  history,  past  and  present.  It  is  easier  to 
learn  in  a  room  where  everything  appeals  to 
the  imagination. 

Mr.  Wirt  says  that  you  never  can  tell  when 
a  child  is  learning.  The  time  that  he  makes 
progress  is  not  necessarily  the  recitation  time. 
It  is  the  constant  impingement  of  impressions 
that  really  educates  him,  and  it  is  this  that 
the  intellectual  side  of  the  Wirt  school  is  skill- 
fully designed  to  cultivate.  Music  and  expres- 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       29 

sion  and  drawing  are  taught,  not  in  regular 
classrooms,  but  in  special  studios,  which  are 
genuine  studios  equipped  with  all  the  facilities 
to  impress  upon  the  child  with  what  serious- 
ness these  things  are  taken  hi  the  Wirt  school. 
Art  tends  to  mean  much  more  to  a  child 
brought  up  in  such  a  school,  because  he  works 
at  it  in  an  impressive  environment. 

The  science  laboratories  for  botany,  zool- 
ogy, chemistry,  physics,  are  not  only  well- 
equipped  laboratories,  but  workshops  as  well. 
The  botany  room  in  the  Gary  school  has  a 
large  conservatory  of  vines  and  plants  at  the 
end;  the  zoology  room  has  a  menagerie  of 
small  pets,  fowls  and  birds,  guinea-pigs  and 
rabbits.  The  physics  rooms  are  in  contact 
with  a  machine  room  where  automobiles  and 
other  machines  illustrate  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  scientific  principles.  Everywhere  the 
attempt  is  made  to  give  a  dramatic  and  prac- 
tical physical  setting  to  the  work  and  study, 
so  that  the  child  may  be  learning  all  the  time 
by  suggestion  and  imitation.  And  everywhere 
the  attempt  is  made  to  show  that  no  one  ac- 
tivity is  any  more  important  than  any  other. 
Each  activity  represents  one  side  of  that 


SO  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

whole  child  to  educate  whom  this  school 
plant  has  been  built. 

The  manual  and  industrial  work  is,  of 
course,  an  essential  feature  of  the  Wirt  school. 
The  shops  are  much  more  extensive  than  is 
customary  in  even  the  most  progressive  public 
school,  or  even  in  the  special  trade  school. 
The  Emerson  School  in  Gary  has,  for  in- 
stance, a  carpentry-shop,  cabinet-shop,  paint- 
shop,  foundry,  forge,  machine-shop,  printery, 
sheet-metal  shop,  electrical  shop,  sewing- 
room,  and  cooking-  and  dining-rooms,  all 
admirably  equipped  as  regular  shops,  and  not 
merely  as  manual-training  rooms.  The  Froe- 
bel  School  has,  besides  these  shops,  a  plumb- 
ing-shop, a  laundry,  a  shoemaking-shop  and  a 
pottery-shop.  In  the  smaller  schools  several 
shops  are  combined  into  one,  as  at  the  Jeffer- 
son, though  the  work  done  is  just  as  genuine 
as  at  the  ideal  plant.  The  number  of  shops, 
or  the  variety  of  work,  is,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
next  chapter,  limited  only  by  the  services 
which  the  school  demands  in  the  way  of 
repairing  or  enhancing  its  physical  facilities. 

When  we  have  mentioned  the  room  for 
commercial  studies,  the  supply-store,  the 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       81 

kindergartens  and  nurseries,  the  draughting- 
rooms,  indoor  playrooms,  teachers'  room, 
conservatory,  doctor's  room  and  dental  clinic, 
offices,  etc.,  our  survey  of  the  school  plant  is 
complete.  The  arrangement  of  rooms  itself, 
however,  is  very  significant.  As  we  pass 
around  the  second  floor  of  the  Froebel 
School,  for  instance,  we  meet,  in  this  order, 
pottery-shop,  laundry,  freehand  drawing- 
room,  two  classrooms,  physics  laboratory, 
music  and  expression  studios,  conservatory, 
two  classrooms,  botany  laboratory,  and  four 
more  classrooms.  The  shops  are  not  segre- 
gated in  the  basement,  but  the  children  in 
then1  various  activities  work  side  by  side. 
Classrooms  are  placed  next  to  laboratories, 
and  shops  next  to  studios,  in  order  to  impress 
the  pupil  with  the  unity  of  the  program,  and 
in  order  that  the  younger  pupils  may  have 
constantly  before  their  eyes  an  inviting  future 
and  opportunity.  All  the  rooms, -moreover, 
have  glass  doors,  and  the  shops  have  windows, 
so  that  the  children,  passing  through  the  halls, 
may  look  in  and  see  others  at  work  at  unfamil- 
iar tasks.  In  this  way  their  curiosity  is  likely 
to  be  aroused  and  the  ambition  to  work  at 


32  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

these  interesting  activities  in  which  they  see 
the  older  children  engaged. 

In  this  juxtaposition  of  the  various  activi- 
ties, therefore,  the  child  has  impressed  upon 
him  that  school  life  is  a  unity  in  breadth,  just 
as  the  combining  of  the  elementary  and  sec- 
ondary school  impresses  him  with  the  fact 
that  his  school  life  is  a  unity  in  length.  No 
opportunity  is  lost  to  touch  his  imagination 
and  excite  his  curiosity.  The  school  plant  it- 
self, in  its  mere  arrangement  and  construc- 
tion, it  will  thus  be  seen,  serves  a  very  import- 
ant educational  purpose.  The  careful  detail 
with  which  this  has  been  worked  out  in  these 
ideal  school  plants  of  Gary  makes  the  Wirt 
school  in  its  physical  aspect  something  very 
much  more  significant  than  a  mere  collection 
of  facilities.  Those  facilities  fit  into  one  an- 
other according  to  a  very  comprehensive  plan. 
They  form  organs  of  a  genuine  school  life, 
which  educates  the  whole  child. 

This  fourfold  division  of  study  and  recita- 
tion facilities,  studio,  workshop,  and  labora- 
tory facilities,  auditorium  facilities,  and  appli- 
cation and  play  facilities,  is  essential  to  the 
working  of  the  Wirt  plan.  Where  the  ideal 


EDUCATING  THE  WHOLE  CHILD       33 

school  plant  is  impossible,  this  fourfold  plan 
may  yet  be  possible.  As  has  been  said,  the 
greatest  triumph  of  the  Wirt  plan  in  Gary  is, 
perhaps,  the  Jefferson  School,  a  building  of 
conventional  style,  which  had  been  erected 
before  Mr.  Wirt  came  to  Gary.  It  was  an 
ordinary  school  building  with  ten  classrooms 
and  auditorium,  but  no  other  facilities.  By 
turning  the  spacious  attic  into  a  gymnasium, 
by  transforming  five  of  the  classrooms  into 
music  and  art  studios  and  nature-study 
laboratories,  by  building  a  general  jack-of- 
all-trades  workshop  around  the  engine-  and 
boiler-room  in  the  cellar,  by  building  a  domes- 
tic-science kitchen  in  an  unused  corner,  put- 
ting lockers  into  wasted  space,  and  by  equip- 
ping the  playground  with  apparatus,  Mr. 
Wirt  succeeded  in  transforming  an  ordinary 
school  building,  whose  prototype  may  be 
found  in  almost  any  town  in  the  land,  into  a 
full-fledged,  varied,  and  smoothly  running 
Wirt  school.  The  reorganization  of  schools 
in  New  York  City  and  other  places  has  been 
done  by  Mr.  Wirt  along  similar  lines.1 

1  See  appendix  for  detailed  description  of  reorganization  of 
twelve  New  York  schools. 


84  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

Where,  in  most  cases,  a  mere  rearrangement 
of  classrooms  and  the  institution  of  shops  and 
laboratories  will  transform  a  school,  in  others 
special  annexes  are  necessary.  These  can  be 
built  usually,  however,  at  comparatively 
small  cost.  The  use  of  portable  houses  by  the 
smaller  schools  of  Gary  has  enabled  the  small 
wayside  "district  school,"  hitherto  confined 
entirely  to  study  and  recitation,  to  transform 
itself  into  a  genuine  Wirt  school,  with  its  four- 
fold work  and  study.  Shop,  auditorium,  and 
laboratory  and  studio  can  be  provided  in  the 
form  of  small  portable  houses,  and  the  capac- 
ity of  the  school  as  well  as  its  facilities  can 
thus  be  greatly  increased. 


m 

WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY:  THE  SCHOOL  AS  A 
COMMUNITY 

THE  Gary  school  represents  not  merely  the 
old  public  school  with  certain  added  modern 
features,  but  a  definite  reorganization.  Its 
aim  is  to  form,  with  its  well-balanced  facilities 
of  work,  study,  and  play,  a  genuine  children's 
community,  where  the  children's  normal 
healthy  interests  are  centered,  and  where  they 
learn,  in  Professor  Dewey's  phrase,  "by  doing 
the  things  that  have  meaning  to  them  as  chil- 
dren." The  Gary  school  aims  to  meet  the 
comparative  failure  of  the  public  school  to- 
day to  care  for  the  city  child.  It  tries  to  take 
the  place  of  the  old  household  and  rural  com- 
munity life  which  provided  for  our  fore- 
fathers the  practical  education  of  which  the 
city  child  in  his  daily  life  is  deprived  to-day. 

The  full  significance  of  the  Gary  plan  can 
scarcely  be  understood  unless  it  is  seen  against 
this  background.  "It  is  impossible,"  says 
Professor  Dewey,  "to  exaggerate  the  amount 


36  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

of  mental  and  moral  training  secured  by  our 
forefathers  in  the  course  of  the  ordinary  pur- 
suits of  life.  They  were  engaged  in  subduing 
a  new  country.  Industry  was  at  a  premium, 
and  instead  of  being  of  a  routine  nature  pio- 
neer conditions  required  initiative,  ingenuity, 
and  pluck.  .  .  .  Production  had  not  yet  been 
concentrated  in  factories  in  congested  centers, 
but  was  distributed  through  villages.  .  .  . 
The  occupations  of  daily  life  engaged  the 
imagination  and  enforced  knowledge  of  natu- 
ral materials  and  processes.  .  .  .  Children  had 
the  discipline  that  came  from  sharing  in  use- 
ful activities.  .  .  .  Under  such  conditions  the 
schools  could  hardly  have  done  better  thai? 
devote  themselves  to  books.  .  .  .  But  condi« 
tions  changed,  and  school  materials  and  meth- 
ods did  not  change  to  keep  pace.  Population 
shifted  to  urban  centers.  Production  became 
a  mass  affair  carried  on  in  big  factories,  in- 
stead of  a  household  affair.  .  .  .  Industry  was 
no  longer  a  local  or  neighborhood  concern. 
Manufacturing  was  split  up  into  a  very  great 
variety  of  separate  processes  through  the 
economies  incident  upon  extreme  division  of 
labor.  .  .  .  The  machine  worker,  unlike  the 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  87 

older  hand  worker,  is  following  blindly  the 
intelligence  of  others  instead  of  his  own  knowl- 
edge of  materials,  tools  and  processes.  .  .  . 
Children  have  lost  the  moral  and  practical  dis- 
cipline that  once  came  from  sharing  in  the 
round  of  home  duties.  For  a  large  number 
there  is  little  alternative,  especially  in  large 
cities,  between  irksome  child  labor  and  de- 
moralizing child  idleness." 

The  Gary  school  is  an  organized  attempt  to 
restore  this  natural  education,  adapt  it  to 
modern  demands,  and  thus  avoid  these  alter- 
natives so  disastrous  for  the  future  of  the 
child  and  the  quality  of  the  coming  genera- 
tion. By  making  the  public  school  as  much  as 
possible  a  self-sustaining  child  community, 
Superintendent  Wirt  believes  that  all  the 
benefits  of  this  older  education  can  be  at- 
tained. "We  cannot,"  he  says,  "trust  the 
other  social  institutions  to  remedy  the  defects. 
Not  more  than  one  quarter  of  the  urban  chil- 
dren attend  Sunday-School  regularly.  This 
makes  an  average  of  only  two  minutes  a  day 
for  all  the  days  and  all  the  children.  In  fact, 
church,  Sunday-School,  public  library,  public 
playgrounds,  Y.M.C.A.,  Boy  Scouts,  and  all 


38  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

other  child-welfare  agencies  do  not  occupy 
the  time  of  all  the  children  of  a  city  for  more 
than  an  average  of  ten  minutes  a  day.  The 
practical  effect  of  this  is  that  the  streets  and 
alleys  and  the  cheap  theaters  and  other  com- 
mercialized places  of  amusement  have  the 
children  for  over  five  hours  a  day.  The  cities 
are  not  fit  places  for  the  rearing  of  children, 
because,  as  a  rule,  the  streets  and  alleys  have 
twice  the  time  for  educating  the  children  in 
the  wrong  direction  that  the  school,  church, 
library,  and  playground  have  for  educating 
them  in  the  right  direction." 

This  is  the  justification  for  extending  the 
Gary  school  day  to  eight  hours  and  limiting 
vacations.  This  is  the  plan  which  gives  ample 
time  for  the  intensive  use  of  the  remarkable 
school  plant  described  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter. For  in  place  of  using  for  the  special  work 
and  play  activities  a  part  of  the  already  too 
few  regular  school  hours  per  year,  the  Gary 
school  secures  additional  time  for  these  activi- 
ties by  appropriating  the  now  worse  than 
wasted  "street  and  alley  time'*  of  the  masses 
of  city  children.  Saturday  school,  vacation 
school,  even  an  all-year  school,  are  features  of 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  39 

the  Gary  plan  which  carry  out  this  principle 
of  providing  a  school  life  for  the  children  for 
as  long  a  time  as  they  can  be  induced  and 
encouraged  to  continue  it.  The  Gary  school 
deliberately  seeks  to  employ  and  satisfy  the 
children's  time  with  wholesome  and  interest- 
ing activity. 

It  aims  not  only  to  organize  the  daily  life  of 
the  child  for  the  greater  part  of  his  time,  but 
it  seeks  to  provide  for  him  in  a  self-sustaining 
community.  This  means  that  all  the  work  and 
study  converge  upon  the  school  life.  The 
things  that  are  done  in  the  Gary  school  con- 
tribute to  the  usefulness,  the  beauty,  or  the 
interest  of  the  school  community.  The  Gary 
school  is  built  on  the  sound  psychological 
theory  that  only  such  work  as  has  meaning  in 
the  life  of  the  school,  as  lived  by  the  children 
themselves  then  and  there,  will  be  really 
learned  and  assimilated.  The  school  is  not 
only  to  be  a  "preparation  for  life":  it  is  to  be 
a  life  itself,  as  the  old  household  was  a  life 
itself.  "The  idea  that  children  should  study 
exclusively  for  eight  years,  and  then  work  ex- 
clusively for  the  rest  of  their  life,"  says  Super- 
intendent Wirt,  "is  really  a  new  idea  in  civili- 


40  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

zation.  The  criticism  of  the  modern  public 
school  is  directed  almost  entirely  at  the 
helplessness  of  children  who  are  attempting 
to  enter  industrial  and  commercial  life  from 
this  exclusive  study  period  of  eight,  twelve, 
or  sixteen  years  in  the  schools,  and  at  the  fact 
that  the  school  is  not  able  to  get  more  than 
half  its  children  beyond  the  sixth  grade  of  the 
common  school.  Formerly  the  school  plus  the 
home  and  small  shop  educated  the  child. 
The  small  shop  has  been  generally  eliminated 
and  the  home  has  lost  most  of  its  former 
opportunities.  A  much  greater  part  of  the 
education  of  the  child  must  be  assumed  by  the 
school  of  the  present  generation.  In  place  of 
the  school,  home,  and  shop,  we  have  the 
school  and  the  city  street  educating  the  great 
masses  of  children.  The  school  must  do  what 
the  school,  home,  and  small  shop  formerly  did 
together." 

>  The  idea  of  making  the  school  a  self- 
sustaining  community  is  worked  out  in  the 
Gary  school  in  the  most  comprehensive  form. 
The  manual-training  and  industrial  shops,  for 
instance,  are  actually  the  shops  for  the  school 
community,  and  their  work  goes  largely  to- 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  41 

ward  the  upkeep  of  the  school  plant.  Voca- 
tional training  in  the  Gary  school  means  that 
whatever  work  is  necessary  in  the  way  of 
repairing,  conserving,  beautifying,  or  enhanc- 
ing the  school  facilities  is  done  by  the  pupils 
themselves.  The  school,  like  the  old-time 
industrial  home  and  community,  has  a  large 
amount  of  real  work  that  is  now  being  done 
and  must  always  be  done  in  connection  with 
the  equipment  of  its  buildings,  grounds,  lab- 
oratories, shops,  etc.  The  large,  lavishly 
equipped  Gary  school  plants  require  a  force  of 
mechanics  to  keep  them  in  repair.  The  usual 
way  of  doing  this  would  be  to  hire  outside 
labor  at  considerable  expense  to  do  the  neces- 
sary work  during  school  vacations.  The  Gary 
schools,  on  the  other  hand,  which  have  no 
long  vacations,  employ  a  permanent  force  of 
mechanics,  and  keep  them  continuously  em- 
ployed throughout  the  year.  Regular  union 
artisans,  chosen  because  of  their  character, 
intelligence,  and  teaching  ability,  are  engaged 
by  the  building  departments  of  the  school 
plant.  There  are  carpenters,  cabinet-makers, 
painters,  plumbers,  sheet-metal  workers,  engi- 
neers, printers,  electricians,  machinists,  foun- 


42  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

drymen,  etc.,  sufficient  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  schools.  This  great  variety  of  equipment 
and  maintenance  work  provides  manual  ac- 
tivity of  a  truly  educative  sort  suitable  to 
every  stage  of  the  child's  development.  The 
shops  of  these  workmen  become  the  regular 
manual  and  industrial  training  shops  of  the 
school.  The  children  work  with  the  artisans 
in  much  the  same  way  as  old-time  appren- 
tices, though,  of  course,  for  only  a  fraction  of 
their  time.  Just  as  the  child  formerly  partici- 
pated in  the  industrial  activities  of  the  house- 
hold, so  now  he  participates  in  the  real  in- 
dustrial activities  of  his  school.  The  school 
artisans,  and  the  nurses,  school  dentist, 
and  physician,  landscape  gardener,  architect, 
and  draftsman,  accountant,  storekeeper,  office 
force,  lunch-room  manager,  designer,  dress- 
maker, milliner,  all  take  the  place  of  the 
father  and  mother  and  older  brothers  and 
sisters  in  the  old-time,  self-sustaining,  prac- 
tically educative  household.  The  children 
receive  all  the  benefits  of  doing  real  work  that 
must  be  done  and  of  participating  in  their  own 
school  business.  And  they  have  the  benefit  of 
a  completely  modern  equipment  resembling 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  43 

in  detail  the  machinery  and  processes  which 
they  will  find  when  they  go  out  into  the  larger 
social  community. 

In  this  novel  scheme  the  Gary  schools  seem 
to  have  experienced  little  difficulty.  Superin- 
tendent Wirt  says  that  when  you  have  pro- 
vided a  plant  where  the  children  may  live  a 
complete  life  eight  hours  a  day  in  work,  study, 
and  play,  it  is  the  simplest  thing  imaginable 
to  permit  the  children  in  the  workshops, 
under  the  direction  and  with  the  help  of  well- 
trained  men  and  women,  to  assume  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  maintenance  of  the  school 
plant.  There  can  be  no  exploitation  of  the 
children,  for  masters  and  pupils  are  per- 
mitted to  do  only  enough  work  to  balance  the 
wages  of  the  masters  and  the  cost  of  materials. 
The  teacher-workmen  would  be  doing  the 
work  whether  the  children  assisted  or  not. 
They  earn  their  salaries  by  their  repair  and 
construction  work,  and  the  children  who  de- 
sire it  get  an  admirably  practical  vocational 
training  almost  without  additional  cost  to  the 
city.  The  great  expense  is  avoided  of  special 
shop  equipment,  such  as  the  usual  industrial 
high  school  or  special  trade  school  has  for  its 


44  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

industrial  courses,  which  are,  moreover, 
wholly  unproductive.  And  the  school  is  able 
to  offer  a  much  greater  variety  of  trades  than 
even  the  special  trade  school:  for  a  school 
plant  like  the  Gary  institution  will  demand  for 
its  equipment  and  maintenance  almost  every 
staple  trade,  industrial  and  domestic,  with  the 
attendant  educational  opportunities  for  both 
boy  and  girl. 

Manual  work  takes  on  quite  a  new  meaning 
when  it  becomes,  as  in  the  Gary  schools,  pro- 
ductive work  for  the  school  community.  It 
is  no  longer  a  question  of  each  child  doing  his 
"practice"  work,  his  stereotyped  "stunt,"  in 
which  he  soon  loses  interest.  The  boys  in  the 
Gary  carpenter-shop  are  making  desks  and 
tables  for  the  classrooms,  cabinets  and  stools 
for  the  laboratories,  or  bookracks  for  the 
library.  In  the  paint-shop  they  are  staining 
and  finishing  them;  or  they  are  at  work  on  the 
woodwork  of  the  building,  painting  or  var- 
nishing. The  electricians  must  care  for  motors, 
bells,  etc.,  and  there  is  always  opportunity 
for  teaching  winding,  motor  construction,  and 
wiring.  Plumbing  must  be  installed  and  kept 
in  repair.  Many  parts  of  the  plant  call  for  the 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  45 

sheet-metal  worker.  Foundry  and  machine 
workers  require  in  turn  a  pattern-making 
shop  and  draftsmen  to  furnish  plans  and  spec- 
ifications. The  engineer  of  the  heating,  light- 
ing, and  ventilating  plant  gives  lessons  in 
firing  and  in  the  care  of  boilers.  The  printing- 
shop  does  all  the  printing  work  for  the  schools, 
—  blanks,  forms,  reports,  charts,  etc.,  besides 
the  illustrated  brochures  which  the  pupils  of 
the  various  departments  issue.  In  the  Froebel 
School  there  is  even  a  demand  for  a  pottery 
shop,  where  the  children  often  discover  artis- 
tic talent  in  making  the  necessary  clay  uten- 
sils for  the  school.  The  number  and  character 
of  the  school  shops  is  limited  only  by  the 
needs  of  the  school  community.  One  year  the 
shoeless  condition  of  some  of  the  children  set 
a  demand  for  a  shoe  shop,  in  which  old  shoes 
were  made  over  into  wearable  new  ones. 
i  The  visitor  to  the  Gary  school  finds  every- 
where little  groups  of  busy  children,  ab- 
sorbedly  interested,  working  on  the  different 
needs  of  the  school,  under  kindly  and  in- 
telligent teacher-workmen.  He  finds  that 
there  is  enough  real  work  in  the  school  plant 
to  keep  occupied  for  his  hour  or  more  a  day 


46  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

every  child  who  is  interested  in  manual  work 
—  and  most  children  are  —  or  who  desires  to 
become  familiar  with  a  trade.  Such  work  is 
highly  educational,  and  it  is  not  drudgery.  It 
is  not  specialized,  nor  is  it  segregated  from  the 
academic  studies.  The  industrial  work  for  both 
boys  and  girls  is  an  integral  part  of  the  school 
life  in  which  every  one  who  cares  for  a 
rounded  education  must  participate  in  some 
form  or  other. 

There  is  not  a  department  which  does  not 
contribute  in  some  way  to  the  school  commu- 
nity life.  The  caretakers  of  the  grounds  are 
under  the  supervision  of  the  botany  and  zool- 
ogy (nature  study)  departments.  The  chil- 
dren work  with  them  in  taking  charge  of  and 
caring  for  the  gardens,  lawns,  trees,  and 
shrubs.  The  botany  classes  care  also  for  the 
school  conservatory  and  for  the  smaller  exper- 
imental conservatory  in  the  botany  labora- 
tory. The  zoology  classes  have  charge  of  the 
school  zoo  as  well  as  the  collection  of  pets  in 
the  zoology  room.  Even  the  drawing  classes 
contribute,  the  mechanical-drawing  pupils  in 
preparing  plans  for  the  industrial  work  and 
construction,  the  art  classes  in  decorating  the 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  47 

friezes  of  their  room  or  in  designing  details  for 
the  building. 

Domestic  science  in  the  Gary  school  is  not 
taught  as  a  separate  "  subject."  It  means  the 
practical  operation  of  the  school  lunch-room 
under  the  direction  of  an  instructor  and  a 
cook  assistant.  The  domestic-science  room  is 
a  real  kitchen,  dining-room,  and  pantry  in 
which  the  daily  lunch  is  prepared  and  served 
to  such  teachers  and  pupils  as  desire  it.  The 
domestic-science  work  for  the  girls  then  con- 
sists of  nothing  but  this  daily  service,  older 
and  younger  girls  cooperating  with  cook  and 
teacher.  The  salary  of  the  assistant  is  paid 
out  of  the  profits  of  the  lunch-room.  Since  the 
food  is  sold,  all  expenses  for  supplies  are 
charged  to  the  lunch  department.  The  sew- 
ing-room is  operated  on  a  similar  plan.  The 
instructor  has  as  assistants  a  practical  dress- 
maker, laundress,  and  milliner.  Their  salaries 
and  all  materials  used  are  paid  for  from  the 
savings  made  by  doing  the  necessary  laundry 
and  needlework  for  the  school.  Both  cooking 
and  sewing  departments  are  therefore  self- 
sustaining  school-community  shops.  The  school 
board  makes  no  appropriations  for  the  sup- 


48  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

port  of  the  lunch-room,  dressmaking,  laundry, 
and  millinery  departments  other  than  the 
salaries  of  the  two  head  teachers.  All  bills  are 
paid  directly  by  the  department  managers, 
and  no  accounts  are  kept  by  the  school 
board.  The  other  shops  are  self-supporting  in 
the  sense  that  the  ordinary  appropriations 
for  painting,  cabinet-work,  electrical  work, 
plumbing,  printing,  etc.  (which  would  have  to 
be  paid  anyway),  generally  pay  the  salaries  of 
the  teacher-workmen  and  the  costs  of  the 
material.  The  ideal  attainment  would  be  to 
make  the  shops  all  self-sustaining  school- 
community  shops. 

The  work  of  all  these  shops  requires  elabo- 
rate systems  of  accounting.  All  this  work  is 
taken  charge  of  by  the  instructors  and  pupils 
of  the  commercial  departments  of  the  school. 
The  work  the  children  do  in  the  shops  is  com- 
puted on  the  basis  of  regular  union  wages  for 
the  particular  trade,  and  they  are  "paid"  in 
imitation  checks,  upon  which  their  standing 
in  the  course  is  based.  For  these  payments 
the  commercial  pupils  manage  a  regular 
school  banking  system,  with  savings  accounts, 
etc.  They  also  have  charge,  under  the  instruc- 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  49 

tors'  supervision,  of  all  the  regular  accounting 
and  secretarial  work  for  the  school  adminis- 
tration. Thus  their  bookkeeping,  stenogra- 
phy, and  typewriting  contribute  directly  to 
the  needs  of  the  school.  The  commercial 
pupils  also  take  care  of  the  ordering  and  dis- 
tribution of  supplies.  Some  of  these,  such  as 
the  coal  and  cement  used  in  the  schools,  are 
in  turn  tested  by  the  chemistry  classes  in  their 
laboratory  to  see  whether  they  come  up  to 
specifications.  The  school  "store"  is  as  im- 
portant a  feature  of  the  school  community  as 
the  school" bank,"  and  the  commercial  pupils 
take  turns  in  "keeping"  it.  The  criticism 
that  the  pupils  are  incompetent  to  handle  all 
these  matters  is  met  by  the  obvious  consider- 
ation that  the  school  cannot  afford  to  gradu- 
ate pupils  in  accounting  and  secretarial  work 
who  cannot  perform  these  functions  efficiently 
for  themselves  and  their  school.  At  present,  it 
should  be  mentioned,  these  departments  are 
said  not  to  be  self -supporting,  in  the  way  that 
the  domestic-science  shops  are. 

If  the  school  is  to  be  the  children's  com- 
munity, there  must  be  some  place  of  general 


60  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

assembly,  some  forum  or  theater  where  the 
school  may  take  stock  of  itself.  This  is  pro- 
vided in  the  "auditorium,"  one  of  the  original 
and  essential  features  of  the  Gary  plan. 
"Auditorium,"  to  which  a  daily  hour  is  given, 
is  devoted  to  purposes  different  from  the  reli- 
gious exercises,  declamations,  and  moral  hom- 
ilies common  to  the  "opening  exercises"  of 
the  ordinary  school.  It  does  not  even  open 
the  day,  for  the  Gary  program  makes  it  neces- 
sary for  the  "auditorium"  hour  to  come  at  pe- 
riods throughout  the  day,  differing  for  differ- 
ent classes.  The  aim  is  to  make  it  an  occasion 
where  anything  that  is  happening  of  peculiar 
interest  in  any  part  of  the  school  may  be  dra- 
matically brought  to  the  attention  of  the  rest 
of  the  school.  In  the  Gary  school,  each  child 
goes  to  "  auditorium  "  for  a  full  hour  each  day, 
and  listens  to  a  program  contributed  by  pupils 
or  teachers  or  outside  visitors.  There  is  al- 
ways choral  singing;  there  may  be  instru- 
mental or  phonograph  music  besides.  Lan- 
tern-slides and  motion-pictures  are  often 
shown.  There  may  be  talks  by  the  special 
teachers  about  their  work.  The  child  may  see 
there  gymnastic  exhibitions,  —  as  has  been 


0ANTA   B 

WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  51 

said,  the  stage  at  the  Froebel  School  is  so 
large  that  a  full-sized  basketball  game  may  be 
played  upon  it  before  the  audience,  —  folk- 
dancing,  or  dramatic  dialogues  and  little 
plays  written  by  the  pupils  themselves  about 
interesting  things  in  their  study  or  reading. 
There  may  be  debates  on  school  issues.  What 
is  to  be  presented  in  "auditorium"  is  limited 
only  by  the  imagination  and  expressiveness 
of  teachers  and  children.  The  teachers  in  turn 
have  the  responsibility  of  arranging  the  pro- 
gram, in  cooperation  with  their  pupils.  Chil- 
dren of  widely  different  ages  are  sent  together 
to  the  "auditorium"  hour,  so  that  the 
younger  may  have  their  curiosity  stimulated 
about  the  work  of  classes  that  they  perhaps 
have  not  yet  reached,  and  so  that  the  older 
may  lose  that  snobbery  of  age  which  often 
causes  so  much  unhappiness  in  childhood,  and 
tends  to  fill  the  adult  mind  with  delusions 
about  the  young.  This  plan,  therefore,  makes 
for  sympathy  between  the  pupils,  makes  each 
child  familiar  with  the  activities  of  the  whole 
school,  and  prevents  that  unfortunate  segrega- 
tion and  confinement  of  the  ordinary  school. 
Besides  being  able  to  look  into  the  various 


62  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

rooms  through  the  glass  doors,  the  child  in  the 
Gary  school  has  an  opportunity  of  seeing  in 
"auditorium  "  in  dramatic  form  the  life  of  his 
school.  The  influence  of  this  "auditorium" 
hour  upon  the  school  work,  particularly  the 
academic  work,  can  hardly  fail  to  be  marked, 
for  it  directly  motivates  all  the  studies.  It  is 
a  sort  of  communal  "application"  activity. 
History  and  literature  take  on  a  new  meaning, 
because  the  material  may  be  studied  now 
always  in  the  light  of  its  possible  presentation 
to  the  rest  of  the  school  in  dramatic  and  intel- 
ligent form.  Many  schools  use  the  dramatic 
sense  to  vitalize  these  studies,  but  no  other 
school  provides  so  definite  and  regular  a  focus, 
and  so  constant  and  interested  an  audience 
for  the  products  of  such  a  vitalization.  The 
"auditorium"  in  the  Gary  school  seems  to  be 
a  genuine  school-community  theater,  an  in- 
evitable and  integral  part  of  the  school  life. 

In  the  words  of  Superintendent  Wirt,  the 
Gary  school  aims  to  be  a  "clearing-house  for 
children's  activities."  The  ideal  is  to  render 
the  school  community  as  self-sustaining  and 
self-stimulating  as  possible.  Whatever  the 
school  cannot  itself  contribute  to  the  educa- 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  53 

tion  of  the  child,  it  may  find  in  the  institu- 
tions of  the  surrounding  community.  Any 
outside  agency  which  provides  wholesome 
activities  for  children  becomes  then  a  sort  of 
extension  of  the  school.  Children  in  the  Gary 
school  are  permitted  to  go  out  from  their  play 
or  "auditorium  "  hour  to  do  special  work  at 
home,  take  private  music  or  art  lessons,  visit 
the  Y.M.C.A.,  settlement  or  neighborhood 
house,  attend  the  Boy  Scouts  or  Camp-Fire 
Girls,  or  receive  religious  instruction  in  the 
churches.  This  outside  work  is  then  ranked  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  school  work. 

It  is  this  community  cooperation  which  has 
particularly  roused  the  interest  of  religious 
educators.  It  suggests  to  many  of  them  a  so- 
lution of  the  problems  of  religious  education, 
and  of  separate  denominational  schools.  Reli- 
gion does  not  enter  the  Gary  school  in  any 
form,  not  even  in  Bible  reading  and  prayer. 
But  children  may  go  out,  for  one  hour  a  day, 
two,  three,  or  even  four  times  a  week,  to 
classes  in  religious  instruction,  privately  or- 
ganized and  supported  by  the  various 
churches  of  the  city.  To  meet  the  situation 
in  Gary,  the  churches  have  in  some  instances 


54  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

engaged  special  instructors  for  these  classes  in 
religion.  The  Presbyterian,  Methodist,  and 
Christian  churches  are  said  to  have  united  in 
engaging  a  teacher  at  a  relatively  high  salary. 
Such  cooperation  not  only  insures  the  services 
of  well-trained  and  liberal  teachers,  but  must 
necessarily  banish  sectarian  dogmatism  from 
the  teaching.  In  Gary,  the  Baptist,  Roman 
Catholic,  and  Hebrew  churches,  besides  the 
Y.M.C.A.,  are  said  to  be  giving  this  special 
instruction.  In  the  Jefferson  School  more 
than  hah*  the  children  attend  these  classes  at 
the  churches.  This  feature  of  the  Gary  plan 
is  one  of  the  most  interesting,  and  perhaps 
has  the  most  far-reaching  possibilities,  in  the 
way  of  transforming  religious  instruction  in 
this  country.  This  plan  is  characteristic  of  a 
school  which  seeks  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  individual  child,  and  to  make  everything 
in  the  community  which  is  truly  educational, 
or  which,  for  any  reason,  parents  and  children 
believe  to  be  genuinely  educational,  contrib- 
ute to  the  life  of  the  school  community. 

Since  the  other  institutions  have  the  same 
privileges  as  the  churches,  they  are  all  given 
the  opportunity  in  this  plan  of  enlarging 


WORK,  STUDY,  AND  PLAY  55 

their  effective  resources.  City  schools  which 
wish  to  adopt  the  Gary  plan,  but  lack  the 
ideal  school  plant  or  the  varied  facilities,  may 
often  avail  themselves  of  the  gymnasium, 
pools,  playgrounds,  etc.,  of  near-by  Y.M.C.A. 
or  settlement  houses,  and  use  the  public 
library  and  public  playground,  and  thus  ac- 
quire, by  systematic  cooperation  with  these 
other  agencies,  an  effectively  working  Gary 
school.  This  plan  has  been  adopted  with 
great  success  in  the  case  of  the  New  York 
schools,  a  number  of  which  are  in  the  course 
of  adopting  the  Gary  plan,  or  many  features 
of  it.  Their  experience  has  shown  that,  by 
making  the  school  a  "clearing-house  for  chil- 
dren's activities,"  the  social  resources  of  all 
these  communal  institutions  are  vastly  in- 
creased. 

To  sum  up,  the  Gary  school  forms  a  chil- 
dren's community,  which  aims  to  provide  the 
practical  natural  education  of  the  old  school, 
shop,  and  home  which  educated  our  fore- 
fathers. It  is  a  necessary  evolution  and  re- 
organization of  the  public  school  to  meet  the 
changed  social  and  industrial  conditions  of 


56  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

the  modern  city.  The  school  community,  by 
providing  a  fourfold  activity  of  work,  study, 
and  play,  uses  the  children's  time  and  keeps 
them  from  the  demoralizing  influence  of  the 
streets.  In  the  "auditorium"  it  provides  a 
public  theater  which  may  motivate  all  the 
work  and  study.  By  cooperating  with  all  the 
community  agencies  which  provide  whole- 
some activities  for  children,  it  makes  them 
all  more  valuable  and  effective.  And  by 
making  the  school  as  far  as  possible  a  self- 
sustaining  community,  it  gives  meaning  and 
purpose  to  all  the  work,  trains  the  children 
for  the  outside  world,  and  cultivates  the  so- 
cial virtues. 


IV 

PROGRAMS:  THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC 
UTILITY 

SCHOOLS  such  as  those  in  Gary,  with  their 
elaborate  equipment  and  special  school  en- 
terprises, obviously  require  methods  of  finan- 
cing radically  different  from  those  of  the 
ordinary  public  school.  It  is,  perhaps,  this 
problem  of  how  a  small  and  relatively  poor 
city  like  Gary  could  afford  to  maintain  such 
schools  that  has  aroused  the  interest  of  prac- 
tical school  men  in  the  Gary  plan.  When  the 
public  schools  were  first  started  in  the  new 
town,  the  authorities  found  themselves  in  a 
peculiarly  difficult  situation,  owing  to  the 
limited  funds  at  hand  and  the  demands  of  a 
rapidly  increasing  population.  The  conven- 
tional method  of  meeting  the  situation  would 
have  been  to  erect  inferior  buildings,  to  omit 
playgrounds,  laboratories,  workshops,  to  em- 
ploy cheap  teachers,  to  increase  the  size  of 
classes,  to  limit  the  yearly  term,  or  else  to  try 
to  accommodate  all  the  children  in  a  few 


58  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

buildings  on  half-time  work.  These  have 
been  the  methods  which  our  large  cities  have 
almost  universally  felt  themselves  obliged  to 
adopt  when  confronted  with  these  problems 
of  economy  and  congestion. 

The  other  possible  method  —  and  this 
seems  to  be  the  unique  contribution  of  the 
Gary  plan  to  the  economics  of  education  — 
was  to  treat  the  public  school  as  a  public 
service,  and  apply  to  it  all  those  principles 
of  scientific  direction  which  have  been  per- 
fected for  the  public  use  of  railroads,  tele- 
phones, parks,  and  other  "public  utilities." 
The  new  city  of  Gary  could  create  thor- 
oughly modern,  completely  equipped  school 
plants,  and  operate  them  so  as  to  get  the 
maximum  of  service  from  them.  Superin- 
tendent Wirt  and  the  school  board  believed 
that  this  plan  would  be  the  true  economy. 

Mr.  Wirt  says,  "You  can  afford  any  kind 
of  school  desired  if  ordinary  economic  public- 
service  principles  are  applied  to  public-school 
management.  The  first  principle  in  turning 
waste  into  profit  in  school  management  is  to 
use  every  facility  all  the  time  for  all  the  peo- 
ple.'* Instead,  therefore,  of  counting  their 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    59 

financial  resources  and  then  deciding  what 
limited  educational  facilities  could  be  pro- 
vided with  them,  the  Gary  authorities  seem 
to  have  decided  upon  the  ideal  school  plant 
desired  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  modern  city 
child,  and  then  to  have  proceeded,  by  the 
ingenious  application  of  principles  well  recog- 
nized in  business  and  industry,  to  utilize 
then*  resources  so  as  to  support  the  desired 
facilities.  The  Gary  plan  has  made  evident 
the  great  wastes  involved  in  the  conventional 
methods  of  managing  the  public-school  plant. 
All  school  men  will  agree  with  Superinten- 
dent Wirt  when  he  says  that  "most  certainly 
playgrounds,  gymnasiums,  and  swimming- 
pools  are  good  things  for  all  children  to  have. 
I  believe  that  gardens,  workshops,  drawing 
and  music  studios  are  good  things  for  children 
to  have.  I  believe  that  museums,  art  galler- 
ies, and  libraries  are  good  things  for  children 
to  use  systematically  and  regularly.  In  my 
judgment  opportunities  for  religious  instruc- 
tion, for  private  instruction  in  music,  and  for 
assisting  in  desirable  home  work  are  good 
things  for  children.  So  also  are  cooperative 
classes  between  the  academic  school  and  the 


60  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

industrial  activities  of  the  school  business 
departments,  and  between  the  school  and 
industrial  activities  outside  the  school.  In 
what  way  will  the  use  of  these  facilities  handi- 
cap a  child  in  his  efforts  to  secure  an  educa- 
tion?". 

The  answer  is,  of  course,  "in  no  way." 
These  are  the  things  the  most  advanced 
higher  schools  and  wealthy  private  schools 
are  providing  for  their  pupils.  School  men 
may  have  desired  to  provide  all  these  things 
for  all  the  children  of  the  elementary  schools 
too,  but  rarely  has  economic  skill  combined 
with  educational  philosophy  to  bring  such  an 
ideal  within  the  bounds  of  possibility.  The 
Gary  school  seems  to  have  found  a  way.  It 
has  actually  realized  the  ideal,  and  made 
practicable  that  school-community  life  which 
other  schools  have  only  envisaged.  It  has 
found  that  any  kind  of  school  desired  may  be 
had  if  classrooms,  auditoriums,  playgrounds, 
etc.,  are  in  constant  use  all  day  long  by  all  the 
children  in  alternating  groups  and  out  of 
school  hours  by  adults. 

"The  modern  city,"  says  Superintendent 
Wirt,  "is  largely  the  result  of  the  application 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    61 

of  the  principle  of  the  common  use  of  public 
facilities  that  we  need  for  our  personal  use 
only  part  of  the  time.  We  are  willing  that 
other  people  use  public  services  when  we  can- 
not use  them.  How  many  street-cars  and 
what  sort  of  service  could  we  afford  if  each 
citizen  had  to  have  his  own  private  street-car 
seat  for  his  own  exclusive  use?"  Yet  the 
educational  ideal  in  school  management  gen- 
erally remains  what  is  set  forth  in  the  report 
of  the  1913  Part-Time  Committee  of  the  New 
York  public  schools,  —  "Every  pupil  is  en- 
titled to  an  individual  seat  and  desk.  The 
teacher  is  entitled  to  the  exclusive  possession 
of  a  classroom.  .  .  ." 

In  the  light  of  the  Gary  plan  this  ideal  is 
absurd.  It  means,  as  has  been  discovered  in 
the  New  York  experience,  that  school  facili- 
ties can  never  be  made  to  catch  up  to  school 
population.  And  it  is  absurd  because  it  as- 
sumes that  all  persons  in  school  want  to  do 
the  same  thing  at  the  same  time.  But  all 
"modern  public  conveniences  are  made  pos- 
sible only  by  their  common  use  and  the  fact 
that  we  do  not  want  to  use  the  same  public 
conveniences  at  the  same  moment.  We  are 


62  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

willing  to  have  some  one  else  use  our  public 
library,  look  at  our  pictures  in  our  public 
museum,  walk  in  our  public  park,  sleep  in  our 
Pullman  berth  or  in  our  hotel  bedroom,  or 
travel  in  our  steamboat  when  we  are  other- 
wise engaged."  It  proves  to  be  as  financially 
prohibitive  to  attempt  to  provide  an  individ- 
ual desk  and  seat  for  every  school-child  as  it 
is  to  provide  an  individual  seat  for  every  citi- 
zen who  may  sit  in  the  park.  "The  great 
masses  of  children  in  our  city  schools  can  never 
have  ample  play  spaces,  suitable  auditoriums, 
gymnasiums  and  swimming-pools,  workshops, 
libraries,  museums,  or  even  ordinary  school- 
rooms for  study  and  recitation,  if  all  children 
at  the  same  time  must  be  using  each  of  these 
facilities  separately."  The  more  people  use 
these  public  services,  the  cheaper  they  be- 
come for  each  one  of  us.  And  the  more  evenly 
the  public  use  is  distributed,  the  more  valu- 
able becomes  the  service  to  each  one  of  us. 
"Increasing  the  number  of  persons  using  any 
public  facility  either  under  public  or  private 
ownership  betters  the  service  for  all,  provided 
the  load  can  be  uniformly  distributed  during 
operating  hours.  The  problem  with  a  public 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    63 

lighting  or  transportation  service  is  to  elimi- 
nate 'peak-loads'  as  far  as  possible." 

We  have  had  constantly  before  us  the 
gradual  extension  of  the  principle  of  multiple 
service  of  public  facilities.  The  Gary  plan 
makes  the  public  school  the  last  of  these  pub- 
lic services  to  come  under  the  operation  of 
these  principles.  As  generally  managed  the 
public  school  has  not  recognized  these  prin- 
ciples. The  effect  of  its  administrative  meth- 
ods, its  rigid  school  hours,  its  uniform  curric- 
ulum, its  emphasis  on  academic  work,  has 
been  rather  to  increase  the  "peak-loads" 
and  thus  inadvertently  to  increase  the  costs  of 
operation.  In  many  schools,  the  use  of  the 
"auditorium  "  does  not  average  more  than  ten 
minutes  a  day  for  each  day  of  the  year,  and 
the  playgrounds  barely  an  hour  each  day  of 
the  year.  And  for  every  hour  that  shops,  etc., 
are  empty,  there  is  a  waste  and  leakage, 
which  would  be  permitted  in  no  other  public- 
service  institution. 

The  Gary  plan,  therefore,  has  worked  out  a 
multiple  use  of  the  school  plant  in  the  most 
comprehensive  form.  By  distributing  classes 
in  alternating  groups,  so  that  every  depart- 


64  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

ment  and  room  is  in  use  as  nearly  as  possible 
every  hour  of  the  eight-hour  day,  the  "peak- 
loads"  are  prevented  and  the  costs  of  opera- 
tion reduced  to  the  minimum.  This  system, 
variously  called  a  "rotation-of -crops"  or  a 
"platoon"  system,  permits  almost  the  actual 
doubling  of  the  capacity  of  the  school  plant. 
Two  duplicate  schools  may  function  together 
in  the  same  building  all  day  long.  This  "du- 
plicate-school" plan  is  not,  it  must  be  ob- 
served, that  used  hi  some  cities,  where  one 
school  occupies  the  rooms  for  a  few  hours 
while  the  other  remains  at  home,  to  take  its 
turn  in  the  rooms  while  the  other  goes  out. 
That  is  merely  a  "part-time"  scheme,  and 
only  accentuates  the  usual  evils  of  fragmen- 
tary schooling  and  demoralizing  street  life. 
The  Gary  plan  involves  two  distinct  schools, 
known  as  the  "X"  and  the  "  Y"  schools,  each 
of  which  has  the  entire  program  and  the  full 
day.  The  Gary  plan,  in  other  words,  can  ac- 
commodate twice  the  ordinary  number  in  a 
school-building,  not  by  shortening  the  time 
for  each  child,  but  actually  by  lengthening  it. 
How  this  plan  works  out  in  detail  for  a 
school  unit  of  eight  classes  may  be  shown  by 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    65 

the  following  program,  which  was  used  in  the 
Jefferson  School  when  Superintendent  Wirt 
first  came  to  Gary.  The  Jefferson  School  has 
been  described  as  a  conventional  school- 
building,  which  was  adapted  to  the  Gary 
plan  by  the  institution  of  shops,  gymnasium, 
etc.,  and  the  conversion  of  classrooms  into 
laboratories  and  studios.  The  program  shows 
how  a  small  eight-room  school,  ordinarily 
accommodating  three  hundred  and  twenty 
children  (forty  to  a  class),  may,  with  a  small 
auditorium,  playground,  attic  gymnasium, 
and  basement  shops  accommodate  two  dupli- 
cate schools  of  eight  teachers  each,  with  a 
total  of  six  hundred  and  forty  children. 
The  first  column  gives  the  teachers,  —  grade 
teachers  for  the  regular  studies  of  the  eight 
grades,  and  special  teachers  for  the  special 
activities.  The  second  column  gives  the 
rooms  where  the  work  is  conducted;  the 
other  columns  give  the  distribution  of  time. 
"IX"  means  the  first  grade  of  the  "X" 
school; "  1Y"  means  the  first  grade  of  the  "  Y  " 
school,  etc.  The  program  shows  the  ingen- 
ious distribution  of  classes  throughout  the 
school  and  throughout  the  course  of  the  day, 


66 


THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 


—  six  hours  in  this  case,  to  which  one  hour 
and  a  quarter  must  be  added  for  lunch-time. 


Studies 

Forenoon 

Afternoon 

Teachers 

Room 

90  min. 

90  min. 

90  min. 

90  min. 

1st  Grade 

Classroom 

IX 

1Y 

IX 

1Y 

2d 

2X 

2Y 

2X 

2Y 

3d 

ax 

3Y 

ax 

8Y 

4th 

4X 

4Y 

4X 

4Y 

6th 

5X 

5Y 

BX 

BY 

6th 

6X 

6Y 

6X 

6Y 

7th    . 

7X 

7Y 

7X 

7Y 

8th 

8X 

8Y 

8X 

8Y 

Music    . 

Auditorium 

1Y  2Y 

IX  2X 

3Y4Y 

3X4X 

Drawing 

Basement 

3Y4Y 

3X  4X 

1Y  2Y 

IX  2X 

Literature 

Library 

6Y  6Y 

5X  6X 

7Y  8Y 

7X  8X 

Science  or  manual 

arts    

Basement 

7Y  8Y 

7X  8X 

5Y6Y 

6X6X 

Physical  education 
(2  teachers     and- 

Attic 
Playground 
Attic 

2Y  1Y 
4Y  3Y 
6Y  5Y 

2X  IX 
4X  3X 

6X  6X 

6Y  6Y 
8Y  7Y 
2Y  1Y 

6X  5X 
8X  7X 
4X  3X 

principal)  .    .    . 

Playground 

8Y  7Y 

8X  7X 

4Y  3Y 

2X  IX 

!  According  to  this  program,  only  eight 
regular  schoolrooms  are  required  for  the  six- 
teen classes.  While  these  eight  classrooms 
are  occupied  by  the  classes  engaged  in  the 
regular  studies,  the  eight  other  classes  are 
engaged  in  special  activities  in  other  parts  of 
the  school  plant,  in  basement  shops,  attic 
gymnasium,  or  playground.  Half  the  day  is 
given  to  the  regular  studies,  and  half  to  the 
special  activities.  The  regular  studies  occupy 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    67 

two  periods  of  ninety  minutes  each,  one  in 
the  forenoon  and  one  in  the  afternoon.  The 
same  amount  of  time  is  given  to  the  special 
activities,  but  the  ninety-minute  periods  are 
divided  into  two  forty-five-minute  periods. 
The  time  devoted  to  the  regular  studies  is 
divided  as  the  teachers  see  fit.  Each  teacher 
has  but  one  class  at  a  time,  and  the  way  in 
which  the  time  is  distributed  between  the 
arithmetic,  reading,  spelling,  geography, 
history,  etc.,  depends  upon  the  needs  of  those 
in  the  class.  It  will  be  seen  from  the  program 
that  each  class  of  the  two  duplicate  schools 
has  time  not  only  for  three  hours  a  day  of  the 
traditional  school  studies,  but  for  three  hours 
of  play  and. special  activities  besides.  And 
since  this  is  the  daily  program,  each  class 
gets  this  varied  work,  study,  and  play  every 
day,  and  not,  as  is  the  case  of  the  special 
work  in  most  public  schools,  only  once  or 
twice  a  week.  Thus,  according  to  this  pro- 
gram, the  day's  work  for  the  third  grade  in 
the  "X"  school  would  be  mapped  out  in  this 
way,  —  regular  studies,  drawing  or  manual 
training,  playground  or  gymnasium,  lunch, 
regular  studies,  music,  and  playground  again. 


68  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

The  sixth  grade  in  the  "Y"  school  has  a 
program  of  physical  education,  music  or  lit- 
erature, regular  studies,  lunch,  play,  science 
or  manual  arts,  and  regular  studies  again. 
The  program  shows  not  only  how  double  the 
number  of  classes  are  accommodated,  but 
how  all  are  given  a  longer  and  more  varied 
day  than  is  possible  in  the  ordinary  school. 

This  program  represents  the  simplest 
framework  of  the  application  of  public- 
service  principles  to  the  daily  school  pro- 
gram, with  its  multiple  use  of  facilities.  It  is 
known  as  the  "Old  Gary  School  Program," 
and  has,  of  course,  been  much  modified  and 
refined  and  complicated  as  the  need  for  flexi- 
bility and  for  the  further  departmentalizing 
of  studies  has  arisen,  and  as  it  has  had  to  be 
adapted  to  schools  of  different  sizes.  As  here 
presented  it  does  not  include  the  high-school 
classes.  The  program  of  the  complete  school 
plant  is  much  more  elaborate.  The  "Old 
Gary  School  Program,"  however,  contains 
the  essential  principles  of  the  distribution  of 
classes  and  of  school  time. 

Since  September,  1913,  a  new  and  more 
satisfactory  program  has  been  followed  in  the 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    69 

four  larger  Gary  schools.  The  new  school  day 
is  eight  and  one  quarter  hours  in  length,  and 
the  work  is  divided  into  four  groups,  as  fol- 
lows:— 


g. 

Program 

Hours 

1. 

? 

History  and  geography,  English  and  mathematics 
Manual  work,  science,  drawing,  music  

2 
2 

s 

Auditorium          .            

1 

4 

Play,  physical  training,  application  

2 

U 

The  first  group  of  studies  is  conducted  in 
the  ordinary  classrooms;  the  second  group 
in  the  shops,  laboratories,  and  studios;  the 
third  group  in  the  auditorium;  the  fourth 
group  in  the  gymnasiums,  swimming-pools, 
playrooms  and  playgrounds.  Four  groups  of 
children  are  simultaneously  engaged  in  these 
four  different  departments  throughout  the 
day.  If  A  represents  one  half  of  the  classes  of 
grades  1  to  4;  B,  one  half  of  grades  5  to  8;  C, 
the  other  half  of  grades  1  to  4;  and  D,  the 
other  half  of  grades  5  to  8  —  then  A  and  B 
together  will  represent  the  **X"  school  of  our 
old  program,  and  C  and  D  together  will  rep- 
resent the  "Y"  school,  each  school  with  its 


70 


THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 


own  corps  of  teachers  and  classes  of  all  grades 
from  1  to  8.  The  new  program  for  the  dupli- 
cate school  then  works  out  in  operation  as 
follows.  (The  new  day  is  an  hour  longer.) 




Studies  for 

Group  1* 

Group  2 

Group  3 

Group  £ 

8.15-  9.15  

A 

B 

CD 

9.15-10.15  

B 

A 

c 

D 

10.15-11.15  

c 

D 

A 

B 

11.15-12.15  

D 

c 

L/unch-hour 

for  AB 

12.15-  1.15  

A 

B 

Lunch-hour 

for  CD 

1.15-  2.15  

B 

A 

D 

C 

2.15-  3.15  

C 

D 

B 

A 

3.15-  4.15  

D 

C 

— 

AB 

4.15-  5.00    Playgrounds,  gymnasiums,  and  shops  open  for 
volunteers. 


*   See  preceding  table. 

Since  C  D,  or  the  **  Y"  school,  has  physical 
education  the  first  hour  in  the  morning,  and 
A  B,  or  the  "X"  school,  has  it  the  last  hour 
of  the  afternoon,  pupils  in  the  "Y"  school 
are  permitted  to  come  an  hour  later  in  the 
morning,  and  the  pupils  in  the  "X"  school 
are  permitted  to  leave  an  hour  earlier  in  the 
afternoon.  It  will  be  observed  from  this  pro- 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    71 

gram  that  only  one  fourth  of  the  pupils  are 
engaged  in  group  1  during  any  hour  of  the 
day.  Four  separate  classes  are,  therefore, 
accommodated  in  each  regular  classroom. 
Consequently,  the  capacity  of  the  school 
plant  is  four  times  that  of  the  regular  class- 
rooms. But  since  a  number  of  rooms  which 
would  otherwise  be  used  for  classrooms  are 
used  for  laboratories  and  studios,  the  net 
capacity  of  the  school  plant  operating  under 
the  new  program  is,  as  under  the  old  pro- 
gram, twice  the  capacity  of  the  total  number 
of  classrooms. 

In  the  lower  grades  it  is  found  desirable  to 
use  for  formal  physical  training,  half  an  hour 
out  of  the  two  hours  assigned  to  group  2. 
An  exchange  is,  therefore,  made  with  the 
grammar  and  high-school  grades,  which  are 
assigned  to  the  regular  classrooms  for  an 
additional  hour  of  English  and  mathematics. 
In  all  grades  the  tune  assigned  to  group  4  is 
divided  between  the  teachers  of  physical 
education  and  play,  and  the  teachers  of  the 
subjects  in  groups  1  and  2.  In  the  lower 
grades,  teachers  of  the  regular  studies  use 
their  share  of  the  time  —  one  hour  —  in 


72  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

games  and  constructive  plays  that  apply  the 
subject-matter  taught  in  the  classes.  This  is 
the  "application"  work  which  is  so  distinc- 
tive a  feature  of  the  Gary  school.  It  is  planned 
systematically  to  give  the  formal  work  of  the 
school  opportunity  for  expression  through 
activity.  The  music  and  literature  teachers 
use  the  "application**  period  for  folk-dances, 
musical  games,  dramatics,  modeling  in  clay 
and  sand,  and  for  free  imaginative  play  and 
construction.  This  "application**  work  is 
carried  on  informally  in  the  broad  halls  or  in 
corners  of  the  playgrounds  and  playrooms. 
Whatever  work  has  permanent  value  or  in- 
terest may  then  be  practiced  for  presentation 
in  the  "auditorium"  period.  The  nature- 
study  and  science  teachers  use  the  applica- 
tion period  for  the  care  of  the  lawns,  trees, 
shrubbery,  the  conservatories,  the  gardens, 
the  animal  pets.  In  the  upper  grades,  mathe- 
matics teachers  use  this  period  for  the  practi- 
cal measuring  and  planning  of  the  various 
mechanical  construction  projects  of  the  shops 
or  grounds,  or  in  practical  accounting  in  con- 
nection with  the  clerical  work  of  the  school. 
In  other  words,  it  is  in  the  "application** 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    73 

periods  that  that  work  is  done  which  con- 
tributes to  the  school  community  life  which 
has  been  described  in  the  chapter  on  "  The 
School  as  a  Community." 

In  the  lower  grades,  "application"  takes 
largely  the  form  of  games.  In  the  upper 
grades,  the  industrial  and  science  work  is 
used  as  the  basis.  Practical  instruction  is 
given  by  the  shop  and  laboratory  teachers,  in 
addition  to  that  given  by  the  regular  teach- 
ers. The  special  teacher  has  his  pupils  for  one 
hour  in  the  classroom,  followed  by  two  hours 
in  the  shop  or  laboratory  where  direct  appli- 
cation is  made  of  the  theoretical  instruction. 
This  extra  time  is  taken  out  of  that  assigned 
to  group  4. 

The  division  of  time  between  the  various 
activities  in  the  new  program  therefore  works 
out  as  follows :  — 

For  grades  1  to  3:  — 

Language  and  mathematics 2  hours 

Music,  literature  and  expression,  gymnas- 
tics   1  hour 

Application 1  hour 

Auditorium 1  hour 

Lunch 1  hour 

Manual  work  and  nature-study 1  hour 

Free  play 1  hour 


74  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

For  the  other  grades,  4  to  8:  — 
Language,  mathematics,  history,  geography  2  hours 

Science  and  manual  work 2  hours 

Mathematics  and  English  taught  by  shop 

and  laboratory  instructors 1  hour 

Physical  training  and  play 1  hour 

Auditorium 1  hour 

Lunch 1  hour 

This  is  the  new  program  for  a  school  of 
eight  grades.  In  the  case  of  the  complete 
school  plant,  such  as  those  of  the  Emerson 
and  Froebel  Schools  in  Gary,  with  their 
twelve  grades  and  their  forty  or  more  classe? 
apiece,  the  program  becomes  much  more 
complicated.  But  the  division  of  time  fol- 
lows essentially  the  outlines  given  above, 
the  high-school  classes  resembling  the  upper 
grammar  grades'  distribution  of  time  and 
subjects. 

The  noteworthy  thing  about  this  program, 
apart  from  the  ingenious  and  successful  mul- 
tiple use  of  the  school  plant  it  represents,  is 
the  equable  distribution  of  time  between  the 
"regular  studies"  and  the  "special  activi- 
ties." In  the  Gary  school,  the  "special 
work,"  more  or  less  an  appendage  in  the  ordi- 
nary public  school,  is  as  regular  as  the  "regu- 
lar work."  Yet  the  amount  of  academic  work 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    75 

is  no  less  than  that  in  the  ordinary  schools. 
The  various  fundamental  groups  are  par- 
ticipated in  on  equal  terms.  No  subject  is 
slighted,  no  age  is  slighted.  The  extended 
school  day,  which  absorbs  the  "street  and 
alley  time"  of  the  city  child,  affords  ample 
opportunity  for  all  activities.  No  activity 
is  continued  long  enough  to  cause  fatigue, 
while  the  constant  daily  cultivation  of  each 
activity  provides  the  constant  drill  and  the 
thoroughness  of  training  which  the  ordinary 
school,  with  its  short  day  and  crowded  cur- 
riculum, is  compelled  to  slight.  Such  a  pro- 
gram seems  to  be  a  highly  rational  distribu- 
tion of  school  activities,  as  ingenious  from  the 
point  of  view  of  educational  engineering  as  it 
is  pedagogically  sound.  By  treating  the  daily 
use  of  the  schools  as  a  public  service,  the 
Gary  program  obtains,  for  twice  the  number 
of  children  ordinarily  accommodated,  twice 
the  number  of  facilities  ordinarily  provided. 
Each  individual  is  immensely  benefited  be- 
cause all  are  served.  "The  only  reason  why 
the  public  —  that  is,  ourselves  collectively 
—  can  afford  to  provide  things  for  each  of  us 
individually  that  we  cannot  provide  for  our- 


76  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

selves  privately,  is  that  collectively  we  se- 
cure a  multiple  use  of  the  facilities." 

The  same  principles  of  administrative 
economy  —  an  economy  which  creates  rather 
than  impoverishes  —  are  applied  to  the 
yearly  schedule  as  to  the  daily  program. 
The  Gary  authorities  find  that  they  cannot 
afford  to  let  their  plant  stand  idle  two  or 
three  months  of  the  year,  and  are  therefore 
working  toward  an  all-year  school.  This 
effort  coincides  with  a  growing  general  belief 
that  the  long  summer  vacations  not  only  de- 
moralize the  city  child,  but  are  a  great  waste 
of  educational  influence.  At  the  present 
time  state  laws  hinder  the  completion  of  the 
all-year  plan.  The  Gary  schools  now  have 
ten  months  of  regular  compulsory  school,  and 
ten  weeks  of  voluntary  vacation  school,  but 
they  are  working  toward  an  organization  of 
four  quarters  of  twelve  weeks  each.  This 
plan  was  approximated  by  Superintendent 
Wirt  in  the  Bluff  ton  schools  before  he  came  to 
Gary.  Under  this  scheme  pupils  are  required 
to  attend  any  three  of  the  four  quarters,  at- 
tendance in  the  remaining  quarter  being 
wholly  voluntary.  In  Bluffton  it  was  found 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    77 

that  the  attendance  of  the  younger  children 
for  the  summer  quarter  was  greater  than  for 
any  other  quarter  in  the  year.  With  the 
traditional  term  organization,  many  children 
are  unavoidably  absent  in  the  winter  on  ac- 
count of  sickness  and  weather.  Under  the 
four-quarter  arrangement,  however,  the  al- 
lotted vacation  of  these  children  could  be  so 
organized  as  to  include  this  absence  and  thus 
insure  thirty-six  weeks  of  schooling.  "When 
people  are  given  a  chance,"  says  Superin- 
tendent Wirt,  "it  is  found  that  they  do  not 
want  to  go  to  school  at  the  same  time  any 
more  than  they  all  want  to  travel  at  the  same 
time." 

The  all-year  school  would  not  increase  the 
cost  of  maintenance.  For  with  the  same 
number  of  pupils  per  teacher,  the  cost  is  the 
same  whether  the  pupils  are  all  taught  to- 
gether for  thirty-six  weeks,  on  the  traditional 
plan,  or  whether  only  three  quarters  of  them 
are  taught  at  a  time  throughout  a  school 
year  of  forty-eight  weeks. 

The  economies  which  this  multiple  use  of 
school  facilities  effects  are  so  large  as  to  pro- 
vide ample  funds  for  all  the  special  features 


78  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

of  the  Gary  plan  of  education.  These  savings 
are  in  construction,  in  operation  and  main- 
tenance, and  in  instruction.  Savings  in  con- 
struction alone  are  very  large.  Since,  under 
the  duplicate-school  plan,  two  complete 
schools  may  be  accommodated  in  one  build- 
ing, the  number  of  school  plants  may  be 
greatly  reduced.  In  the  light  of  the  Gary 
plan,  therefore,  those  cities  which  are  con- 
fronted with  problems  of  school  congestion 
are  in  the  paradoxical  situation  of  having, 
not  too  few  buildings,  but  actually  too  many. 
Fewer  and  better  plants  would  accommodate 
their  children  under  the  Gary  plan.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  the  Gary  schools  at 
present  have  accommodations  for  many 
more  children  than  there  are  children  to  use 
them,  and  this  in  spite  of  a  phenomenal 
growth  of  population.  The  erection  of  a 
number  of  Gary  unit  plants  is  less  expensive 
than  the  erection  of  a  much  larger  number  of 
ordinary  school-buildings  of  the  common 
school  type.  For  the  cost  of  building  con- 
struction does  not  increase  in  proportion  to 
the  size  of  the  building,  and  large  sums  may 
be  saved  on  the  fewer  sites  required.  The 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    79 

diminution  in  the  number  of  classrooms  in 
the  Gary  school  plant  is  a  distinct  source  of 
economy,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  classroom 
is  uniformly  the  most  expensive  portion  of  the 
school  plant.  The  Gary  experience  seems  to 
show  that  the  best  and  completest  unit  school 
plant  is  also  the  cheapest.  The  plan  of  having 
the  twelve  grades  under  one  roof  avoids  the 
reduplication  of  expensive  equipment  in  sev- 
eral centers.  And  the  self-sustaining  indus- 
trial shops  cut  off  an  item  of  "vocational 
training"  expense  which  most  cities  find  al- 
most financially  prohibitive. 

As  for  the  costs  of  operation  and  mainte- 
nance, it  is  obvious  that  increasing  the  size 
of  the  school  plant  makes  for  economy.  The 
cost  of  janitor  service,  administrative  charges, 
heating,  lighting,  etc.,  are  much  reduced  by 
consolidation.  Nor,  in  order  to  effect  these 
economies,  need  the  size  of  the  school  plant 
be  made  so  large  as  to  make  administration 
unwieldy.  The  largest  Gary  school  plant,  op- 
erating with  all  these  economies,  accommo- 
dates only  twenty-seven  hundred  children, 
forty  children  to  a  teacher,  while  it  is  the 
intention  to  reduce  the  average  number  of 


80  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

children  per  teacher  to  thirty,  and  the  build- 
ing capacity  to  two  thousand  children. 

Finally,  the  cost  per  pupil  for  instruction  is 
decreased  by  the  plan  of  specializing  and 
departmentalizing  the  work,  and  thus  elimi- 
nating overhead  charges  for  supervisors.  It 
should  be  pointed  out  again  that  all  these 
economies  actually  increase  the  educational 
efficiencies  of  the  school. 

The  figures  show  that  the  Gary  school 
plan  does  not  increase  public  expenditures  for 
educational  purposes.  The  Jefferson  School, 
built  before  Superintendent  Wirt  came  to 
Gary,  and  representing  the  common  type  of 
modern  school-building,  was  erected  at  a 
cost  of  $90,000  to  accommodate  360  pupils, 
with  40  pupils  per  teacher.  This  is  a  per- 
capita  construction  cost  of  $250,  a  cost  ex- 
actly equal  to  that  of  a  typical  New  Jersey 
High  School  recently  erected  at  a  cost  of 
$125,000,  with  a  maximum  capacity  of  500 
pupils.  The  capacity  of  the  Emerson  School, 
constructed  as  an  ideal  Gary  school  plant,  is 
1800,  with  30  pupils  to  a  teacher.  Its  cost, 
with  a  large  playground  and  the  wealth  of 
facilities  already  described,  was  about  $300,- 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    81 

000.  The  per-capita  cost  of  construction  was 
therefore  $166.  At  its  maximum  capacity, 
with  40  pupils  to  the  teacher,  the  per-capita 
cost  of  construction  would  be  only  $111,  as 
against  $250  for  the  Jefferson  School,  with 
no  facilities.  Further  tables  of  comparative 
costs  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 

The  funds  liberated  by  the  application  of 
these  simple  economical  principles  to  public- 
school  finance  are  so  large  as  to  give  Gary  the 
means  to  provide,  as  Superintendent  Wirt 
says,  "any  kind  of  a  school  desired."  Extra- 
ordinarily complete  educational  and  recrea- 
tional facilities  may  be  furnished  for  all  the 
people  all  the  year  round.  Money  is  thus 
provided  for  an  evening  school  for  adults  on 
an  almost  unprecedented  scale.  The  Gary 
evening  schools,  held  in  the  four  largest 
school  plants,  four  evenings  a  week  through- 
out the  regular  school  year  from  7  to  9.30 
P.M.,  have  an  attendance  over  two  thirds 
that  of  the  regular  day  schools.  The  cost  of 
the  evening  school  is  only  thirteen  per  cent  of 
the  day-school  cost. 

The  evening  schools  of  Gary  resemble  a 
people's  university.  Practically  every  study 


82  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

authorized  by  state  law  is  given,  and  the 
bulletin  of  courses  is  like  a  university  cata- 
logue. ^All  the  shops,  laboratories,  studios, 
and  classrooms  are  thrown  open,  either  to 
repeat  the  day  studies  or  to  present  more 
advanced  work.  All  the  work,  industrial  and 
academic,  is  open  on  equal  terms  to  men 
and  women.  During  1914-15,  4300  students, 
representing  all  classes  in  the  community, 
are  said  to  have  been  enrolled  in  the  Gary 
evening  schools,  with  an  average  monthly 
enrollment  of  3103.  Over  two  thousand  of  the 
nine  thousand  voters  at  the  last  city  election 
were  said  to  be  enrolled  in  the  Gary  evening 
schools.  There  are  said  to  be  more  men  over 
twenty-one  attending  evening  schools  in 
Gary  than  there  are  boys  of  all  ages  attending 
the  day  schools.  ] 

The  Gary  evening  schools  in  the  last  year 
have  achieved  an  even  closer  articulation  of 
the  work  of  the  day  and  evening  schools.  A 
large  number  of  short-unit  courses  were  of- 
fered for  busy  men  and  women  who  wished 
particular  branches  of  certain  studies,  and 
who  could  not  remain  in  school  to  pursue  their 
studies  in  the  usual  way.  It  has  also  been 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    83 

arranged  to  connect  into  group  units  the 
studies  that  bear  upon  a  given  industrial  oc- 
cupation, so  that  the  school  may  correlate 
directly  with  all  the  occupations  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  adult  worker  may  come  and 
secure  the  additional  experimentation  or  the- 
ory which  will  help  him  in  his  work. 
/  In  addition  to  this  instruction  offered  in 
1  academic  and  industrial  work,  to  the  evening 
pupils  is  given  free  use  of  the  gymnasiums, 
pools,  playgrounds,  etc.  The  playgrounds  are 
artificially  lighted  so  that  games  may  be 
played  successfully  at  night.  Playgrounds 
and  swimming-pools  are  open  on  Sundays 
also,  and  the  auditoriums  for  lectures,  mov- 
ing pictures,  community  forums,  and  the 
like.  All  wholesome  social  gatherings  and 
entertainments  are  welcomed  any  evening  of 
the  week.  The  auditoriums  are  freely  lent  for 
political  meetings,  conferences,  meetings  of 
neighborhood  or  other  private  associations. 
The  Gary  school  plant  thus  becomes  in  the 
fullest  sense  a  social  or  community  center. 
The  "wider  use  of  the  school  plant"  here  in- 
volves almost  the  widest  possible  use  in  the 
interests  of  all  classes  of  the  population;  for 


84  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

the  lavish  Gary  school  plants  contain  equip- 
ments which  serve  the  needs  not  only  of  chil- 
dren, but  of  all  classes  of  adults  as  well,  from 
the  well-to-do  woman  who  wishes  to  learn 
French  to  the  sheet-metal  worker  in  the 
mills.  \ 

By  using  the  schools  as  a  public  service,  the 
Gary  educational  authorities  are  thus  able  to 
provide  for  all  the  people  facilities  at  no 
more  expense  than  other  communities  are 
paying  now  for  meager  opportunities  which 
do  not  even  meet  the  needs  of  the  children, 
while  they  leave  the  majority  of  adults  en- 
tirely uninfluenced  by  the  schools.  "The 
private  exclusive  use  of  public-school  facilities 
has  meant  and  will  continue  to  mean,"  says 
Superintendent  Wirt,  "  that  all  of  the  people 
collectively  can  provide  for  only  a  part  of 
their  number.*' 

The  Gary  school  is  evidently  a  genuine 
"public  school"  in  a  sense  more  "public" 
than  is  generally  known.  In  many  communi- 
ties the  public  school  is  "still  the  old  private 
school  publicly  supported."  School  boards 
often  act  as  if  they  were  trustees  of  private 
property.  They  gravely  discuss  "wider  use 


THE  SCHOOL  AS  A  PUBLIC  UTILITY    85 

of  the  school  plant"  as  if  this  were  some  gra- 
cious extension  of  privilege  instead  of  a  pub- 
lic right.  The  public  in  many  communities 
scarcely  feel  yet  that  the  schools  are  their 
own.  The  Gary  schools  seem  to  have  pro- 
duced a  different  spirit.  They  are  public  in 
the  same  broad  sense  that  streets  and  parks 
are  public.  They  are  used  with  the  same 
freedom  and  lack  of  reserve.  In  such  a  com- 
munity and  such  a  school  education  would 
never  be  finished.  Just  as  there  is  no  break 
between  common  school  and  high  school  in 
the  Gary  plan,  so  there  need  be  none  be- 
tween child  and  adult.  The  child  would  not 
"graduate,"  "complete  his  or  her  education," 
but  would  tend  to  drift  back  constantly  to 
the  school  to  get  the  help  he  or  she  needed  hi 
profession  or  occupation,  or  to  keep  on  en- 
joying the  facilities  which  even  the  wealthy 
private  home  would  not  be  able  or  willing  to 
afford.  It  is  toward  such  a  public  educational 
ideal  that  the  Gary  plan  seems  to  work. 
Toward  this  all  the  economies  and  ingenious 
schemes  of  organization  are  directed  — 
toward  making  the  public  schools  veritable 
"schools  of  the  public." 


V 

ORGANIZATION 

THE  distinctive  features  of  organization  in 
the  Gary  school  are  the  separation  of  ad- 
ministrative from  pedagogical  supervision; 
the  extension  of  departmental  teaching 
throughout  the  entire  school;  the  increased 
initiative  and  cooperation  of  the  teaching 
force;  the  flexibility  and  simplicity  obtained 
by  the  "helper"  or  "observer"  system. 

The  school  administration  is  vested  in  a 
single  head,  the  superintendent  of  schools, 
who  is  appointed  by  the  board  of  education 
of  three  members.  In  charge  of  each  school- 
building  is  an  executive  principal,  whose 
duties  are  concerned  with  program-making, 
with  supervision  of  the  pupil's  schedules, 
with  the  general  maintenance  of  order  and 
discipline,  and  ordinary  administrative  work. 
He  has  no  supervision  of  the  instruction. 

For  all  the  schools  there  are  two  general 
supervisors  of  instruction,  who  oversee  the 
teaching,  work  out  the  curricula  in  coopera- 


ORGANIZATION  87 

tion  with  the  teachers,  conduct  examinations 
for  promotion,  make  promotions  or  demotions 
after  consultation  with  the  teacher. 

The  industrial  and  manual-training  shops 
are  under  the  direction  of  a  director  of  in- 
dustrial work,  who  is  also  practical  head  of 
the  school-building  and  repair  department. 
The  teacher-workmen  in  the  shops  are  em- 
ployed by  him  in  the  dual  capacity  of  manual- 
training  and  industrial  teachers  and  of  regular 
workmen  engaged  in  repair  and  construction. 
Each  building  has  a  head  manual-training 
teacher,  who  supervises  the  work  of  the  in- 
dustrial classes,  of  the  part-time  classes,  and 
acts  as  vocational  adviser  for  the  school's 
pupils.  Gymnasium  and  swimming-pool  at- 
tendants are  employed  by  the  head  teachers 
of  the  physical  education  departments. 

The  departmental  teachers  in  the  head 
building  (Emerson  School)  act  as  assistant 
supervisors  of  instruction  in  their  subjects 
and  have  general  oversight  of  the  courses  in 
their  subjects  as  taught  in  the  other  buildings. 

Departmental  teaching  is  carried  out  in 
the  Gary  schools  to  an  extent  generally  un- 
realized in  other  public  schools.  It  is  con- 


88  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

sidered  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  lowest 
grades,  no  arguments  which  apply  to  the  in- 
stitution of  departmental  teaching  in  the 
high  school  are  inapplicable  to  the  grades  of 
the  common  school.  The  special  activities 
undoubtedly  call  for  specialists  to  conduct 
them.  History,  language,  literature,  mathe- 
matics can  also  be  much  better  taught  if  the 
teacher  can  devote  his  or  her  attention  to 
the  particular  methods  and  orientation  of  the 
respective  subjects,  and  not  be  required  to  be 
equally  at  home  in  the  technique  of  all  of 
them.  Teachers  can  rarely  be  found  who  are 
many-sided  enough  to  teach  well  even  all  the 
common  branches,  without  the  special  activi- 
ties. The  Gary  schools,  therefore,  adopt 
for  all,  except  the  first  two  or  three  grades, 
what  are  practically  advanced  high-school  or 
college  methods  of  specialized  teaching. 

In  these  lowest  grades  all  the  regular  sub- 
jects are  taught  by  the  one  grade  teacher;  in 
the  other  grades  practically  all  the  subjects 
are  departmentalized.  A  unit  school  plant 
which  should  have  fifty-six  classes,  divided 
proportionately  among  the  grades,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  nurseries  and  kindergartens  and 


ORGANIZATION  89 

special  classes,  would  employ  for  grades  1  to 
3,  sixteen  teachers,  as  follows:  For  English, 
mathematics,  8;  for  manual  training,  2;  for 
nature-study,  2;  for  music,  1;  for  expression, 
1 ;  for  physical  training,  2. 

For  grades  4  to  1%,  forty-six  teachers  would 
be  employed:  For  English,  4;  for  mathemat- 
ics, 2;  for  Latin,  1;  for  German,  1;  for  French, 
1 ;  for  Spanish,  1 ;  for  history,  1 ;  for  fourth-  and 
fifth-grade  English,  mathematics,  history, 
and  geography  (either  departmentalized  or 
undepartmentalized),  8;  for  chemistry,  2; 
for  botany,  2;  for  physics,  2;  for  zoology,  2; 
for  freehand  drawing,  2;  for  architectural 
drawing,  2;  for  mechanical  drawing,  1;  for' 
music,  2;  for  expression,  2;  for  cooking,  1;  for 
sewing,  1 ;  for  manual  training  (not  including 
the  industrial  shops),  2;  for  physical  training, 
6.  Four  teachers  would  be  employed  in  the 
kindergarten  department.  A  unit  plant  of 
this  size  would  require  one  executive  building 
principal,  and  one  supervisor  of  instruction. 
Two  school  nurses  and  a  school  physician 
would  also  be  employed. 

Such  a  distribution  of  the  teaching  force 
would  be  considered  the  ideal  for  a  unit 


90  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

school  plant  of  all  grades,  accommodating 
between  fourteen  hundred  and  twenty-two 
hundred  and  fifty  children  in  two  duplicate 
schools.  It  will  be  observed  that  this  most 
careful  specialization  of  teaching  does  not 
increase  the  number  of  teachers  required.  At 
least  fifty-six  teachers,  with  a  number  of 
special  teachers,  would  be  required  in  any 
school  of  fifty-six  classes,  run  on  an  unde- 
partmentalized  plan.  The  Gary  plan,  there- 
fore, without  increasing  the  number  of  teach- 
ers, provides  for  a  much  higher  expertness  of 
service.  Indeed,  Superintendent  Wirt  has 
worked  out  a  form  by  which  a  school  of 
thirty-two  classes  would  only  require  thirty- 
two  teachers,  including  the  special  teachers, 
and  with  most  of  the  work  departmentalized. 
Programs  may  be  arranged  for  schools 
with  any  number  of  classes.  The  number  of 
classrooms  and  teachers  required  will  be  ap- 
proximately as  follows,  including  supervisors, 
special  teachers,  librarians  and  playground 
instructors:  — 

A  12-olass  school  requires  8  classrooms  and  12  teachers. 
A  24-class  school  requires  15  classrooms  and  23  teachers. 
A  86-class  school  requires  22  classrooms  and  33  teachers. 
A  48-class  school  requires  29  classrooms  and  43  teachers. 
A  60-class  school  requires  36  classrooms  and  54  teachers. 
A  72-class  school  requires  43  classrooms  and  64  teachers. 


ORGANIZATION  01 

In  the  72-class  school,  43  classrooms  and 
54  teachers  are  required,  in  addition  to  the 
provision  for  auditorium,  playrooms,  and  li- 
brary. For  this  work  10  teachers  are  required, 
making  a  total  of  only  64  teachers  for  72 
classes.  The  traditional  elementary  school 
requires  72  teachers  and  72  classrooms  for  72 
classes;  the  manual-training  shops  and  the 
manual-training  teachers  are  extra.  In  addi- 
tion there  would  be  librarians  in  branch  pub- 
lic libraries,  playground  directors  in  public 
playgrounds,  and  special  teachers  as  super- 
visors of  music,  drawing,  physical  training, 
manual  training,  and  nature-study.  Often  in 
the  traditional  school  80  or  more  persons  are 
employed  for  the  instruction  of  72  classes, 
not  including  the  building  principal  and 
assistants. 

An  important  feature  of  the  teacher  organ- 
ization in  the  Gary  school  is  the  division  into 
senior  and  junior  teachers,  or  head  teacher 
and  assistant  teacher.  Since  each  classroom 
accommodates  two  teachers  according  to  the 
duplicate-school  plan,  the  teacher  who  has 
been  longer  in  service  is  designated  as  head 
teacher.  The  less  experienced  teacher  acts 


92  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

under  her  direction.  The  head  teachers,  for 
instance,  in  the  "X"  school  may  visit  and 
criticize  the  work  of  the  assistant  teachers  in 
the  "Y"  school  during  the  last  hour  of  the 
day  when  the  "X"  school  is  not  in  session. 
Similarly  the  junior  teacher  in  the  "Y" 
school  may  visit  the  work  of  the  "X"  school 
during  the  first  hour.  Inexperienced  or  weak 
teachers  may  thus  be  developed  under  the 
direction  of  the  more  experienced.  New 
teachers  are  thus  being  constantly  trained  in 
the  new  regime  and  spirit  of  the  Gary  school. 
The  school  is  thus  made  an  extension  of  the 
normal  or  training-school  for  teachers.  The 
teachers  continue  to  learn  as  well  as  the  pu- 
pils. The  question  how  teachers  are  to  be 
procured  for  the  new  demands  which  the 
Gary  plan  puts  upon  them  is  thus  answered. 
The  school  itself  trains  the  teachers. 

The  responsibilities  of  the  teachers  for  the 
auditorium  period  have  been  discussed.  Un- 
der the  old  Gary  plan  each  auditorium  period 
was  in  charge  of  one  teacher  who  acted  as 
assistant  principal.  The  teachers  alternated 
in  organizing  the  dramatic  and  other  features 
of  the  auditorium  work.  Recently  Superin- 


ORGANIZATION  93 

tendent  Wirt  has  decided  that  this  auditorium 
work  functions  better  if  it  is  specialized.  In 
the  new  72-school  program,  four  teachers 
give  their  time  exclusively  to  the  auditorium 
exercises.  One  teacher  has  charge  of  the 
music;  one  has  charge  of  the  art,  literature, 
history,  civics,  and  current  events;  one  has 
charge  of  the  presentation  of  material  relating 
to  the  science  work;  and  one  has  charge  of  the 
presentation  of  the  material  relating  to  the 
shops  and  industries.  In  a  properly  equipped 
auditorium,  with  stereopticon  lantern,  mo- 
tion-picture machine,  stage,  player-piano,  or- 
gan, and  phonograph,  the  auditorium  teach- 
ers can  do  many  things  better  with  large 
numbers  of  children  than  the  regular  teach- 
ers can  do  with  small  numbers.  The  regular 
classroom  teachers  are  expected  to  cooperate 
in  this  frequent  presentation  of  work  by  their 
classes  in  the  auditorium  in  order  to  use  it 
as  a  place  for  "application"  work  and  for 
motivating  the  academic  work  of  the  school. 
In  the  new  program,  the  "application" 
work  is  also  specialized.  Experience  has 
shown  that  some  teachers  have  a  special 
talent  for  this  imaginative  and  constructive 


94  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

side  of  teaching,  and  prefer  to  devote  their 
entire  time  to  it.  In  this  scheme,  the  "  appli- 
cation" teachers  have  six  classes  daily  out  of 
a  total  of  twelve  classes  in  each  of  their  re- 
spective groups.  They  are  thus  able  to  meet 
each  of  the  twelve  classes  of  their  respective 
groups  every  other  day,  week,  month,  or 
term.  Or  these  teachers  may  select  from  each 
of  the  groups  of  three  classes  the  pupils  who 
need  special  work  in  language  and  mathe- 
matics, and  meet  these  pupils  every  day. 
For  the  average  pupil  all  of  the  opportu- 
nity necessary  to  make  an  application  of  his 
language  and  mathematics  is  provided  in 
the  regular  manual-training,  drawing,  music, 
and  expression  classes.  The  "application" 
teachers  meet  their  respective  classes  in  the 
manual-training,  drawing,  music,  and  ex- 
pression rooms.  The  facilities  of  these  special 
rooms  are  used  for  "application"  purposes. 
The  "application"  teachers  are  expected  to 
make  suggestions  to  the  special  teachers  of 
these  subjects  concerning  the  opportunities 
to  teach  language  and  mathematics  through 
the  "application"  opportunities  of  the  regu- 
lar work  of  their  respective  subjects.  Each 


ORGANIZATION  95 

"application"  teacher  may  be  constituted  the 
head  of  a  group  of  eight  teachers.  The  "ap- 
plication" teacher  is  the  correlating  agent  for 
all  the  work  of  the  twelve  classes;  also  she 
works  with  all  of  the  twelve  classes  as  a  con- 
structive examiner,  and  is  constantly  placing 
before  the  children  real  problems  of  the  type 
that  the  world  of  industry,  business,  and 
citizenship  will  place  before  them  when  they 
leave  school.  She  may  not  be  able  to  present 
these  problems  as  well  as  the  world  will  pre- 
sent them  later,  but  the  immediate  and  daily 
reaction  while  the  child  is  in  school  should  be 
invaluable  in  preparing  him  for  meeting  the 
more  difficult  problems  which  arise  when  he 
has  completed  his  school  course. 

Class  periods  may  be  40  or  50  or  55  minutes 
instead  of  60.  Teachers  have  six  hours  in 
school  with  60-minute  periods,  five  and  one- 
half  with  55-minute  periods,  and  five  hours 
with  50-minute  periods.  Pupils  have  a  school 
day  of  seven,  six  and  one-half,  and  six  hours 
respectively,  in  addition  to  an  hour  for  lunch- 
eon. The  playground  teachers  are  on  duty 
an  additional  hour.  Each  teacher  has  an  hour 


06  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

a  day  free  for  her  own  work.  When  her  day  is 
finished,  she  is  supposed  to  leave  the  building. 
It  is  expected  that  all  paper  work,  as  well  as 
all  the  work  of  the  children,  will  be  done  in 
school.  The  purpose  is  to  make  the  teacher's 
day  only  six  hours,  without  the  burden  of 
extra  time  at  home. 

An  interesting  extension  of  this  teacher- 
organization  plan  is  the  new  training  course 
for  outside  teachers  or  principals  who  are 
desirous  of  'studying  the  Gary  school  plan 
and  teaching  methods.  Visiting  teachers  and 
principals  are  allowed,  at  a  fee,  to  attach 
themselves  as  assistants  to  teachers  or  prin- 
cipals, and  follow  the  work  through  a  course 
of  weeks  or  months,  in  exactly  the  same  way 
that  the  small  child  acts  as  "helper"  or  "ob- 
server" to  the  older  child  in  the  laboratory  or 
shop  or  the  junior  to  the  senior  teacher.  The 
fee  goes  to  the  teacher  or  principal  who  in- 
structs the  visitor.  This  novel  way  of  teaching 
the  principles  of  the  Gary  school,  not  by  lec- 
tures, but  by  direct  practical  assistance  on 
the  part  of  the  visitor,  is  typical  of  that  in- 
sistence upon  "learning  by  doing"  which  is 
the  keynote  of  the  Gary  instruction. 


ORGANIZATION  97 

The  Gary  plan  acts  on  the  theory  that  the 
good  teachers  should  be  given  initiative  and 
responsibility,  while  the  inexperienced  and 
weak  teachers  should  be  trained  into  initia- 
tive and  responsibility.  The  usual  plan  in 
school  systems  is  to  make  the  experienced 
and  inexperienced,  strong  and  weak,  coordi- 
nate with  one  another,  and  all  subordinate  to 
the  supervisor  or  superintendent.  The  Gary 
plan  thus  secures  the  utmost  from  the  good 
teachers,  and  trains  the  poor  ones. 
.  Instead  of  employing  special  "visiting 
teachers,"  as  is  done  in  many  school  systems, 
the  teacher  in  the  Gary  school  is  given  the 
responsibilities  of  the  "visiting  teacher*'  by 
being  made  a  "register  teacher"  for  a  sub- 
division of  the  school  district.  In  this  way 
cases  of  maladjustment  to  school,  home,  or 
neighborhood  conditions  may  be  met.  The 
school  population  of  the  city  is  geographi- 
cally districted  in  such  a  way  that  each  dis- 
trict holds  about  fifty  families.  The  children 
in  a  district  are  assigned,  irrespective  of  age 
or  grade,  to  one  of  the  grade  teachers.  Each 
"register  teacher"  meets  her  group  once  a 
week  for  general  conference.  She  gives  out 


98  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

the  monthly  reports.  Failure  in  self-control, 
irregular  attendance,  tardiness,  and  other 
matters  are  reported  to  her.  No  child  is  ex- 
cused from  class  without  her  permission,  and 
she  is  expected  to  call  at  the  homes  of  the 
children  when  necessary  or  to  meet  their 
parents  at  the  school.  Each  "register 
teacher"  holds  the  same  children  from  class 
to  class  as  long  as  they  live  in  the  district. 
She  corresponds  almost  exactly  to  what  is 
known  as  the  "faculty  adviser"  of  the  col- 
lege student,  a  guide  and  friend  for  the  gen- 
eral conduct  of  school  life  and  for  difficulties 
that  arise.  The  "register  teacher"  is  a  sort  of 
disciplinary  and  sociological  overseer  for  a 
group  of  children  living  in  the  same  neighbor- 
hood. She  has  a  set  of  blanks  which  in  fact 
provide  a  basis  for  a  complete  sociological 
survey  of  her  district.  These  she  is  supposed 
to  fill  in,  as  facts  about  living  conditions, 
etc.,  come  to  her  attention.  It  seems  evident 
that  this  work,  while  exacting,  involves  no 
more  than  a  teacher  should  know.  No  more 
valuable  sociological  training  could  be  im- 
agined for  the  intelligent  and  progressive 
teacher.  Such  work  relates  her  at  once  to  the 


ORGANIZATION  99 

general  community  life,  and  makes  her  pro- 
fession of  a  far  more  serious  importance  than 
is  usually  given  to  the  grade  teachers  in  the 
public  schools.  This  work  is  typical  of  the 
demands  for  a  new  initiative  and  intelligence 
that  the  Gary  plan  makes  upon  the  teachers, 
and  also  of  the  immense  educative  value  of 
these  demands. 

The  effort  is  constantly  made  in  the  Gary 
schools  to  bridge  the  gap  between  teacher  and 
pupil.  An  important  recent  innovation  is  the 
institution  of  "teachers'  assistants."  Stu- 
dents in  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades 
have  ten  weeks  for  drawing,  ten  weeks  for 
science,  ten  weeks  for  shopwork,  and  ten 
weeks  for  service  as  "teachers'  assistants." 
The  students  act  as  laboratory  and  studio 
assistants  only  in  the  departments  in  which 
they  have  a  special  interest.  Three  or  four 
students  assist  the  science  teachers,  three  or 
four  the  drawing  teachers,  and  three  or  four 
the  shop  teachers.  Playground  teachers, 
auditorium  teachers,  music  teachers,  etc., 
have  as  assistants  the  students  especially  in- 
terested. Each  student  can,  therefore,  re- 
ceive twenty  weeks  of  work  hi  the  department 


100  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

in  which  he  has  a  special  interest.  Many 
teachers  confess  that  the  first  year  of  teach- 
ing gave  them  a  much  clearer  grasp  of  the 
subjects  they  taught  than  they  were  able  to 
secure  as  students.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
scholarship,  the  teachers'  assistants  learn 
more  by  acting  in  this  r61e  for  a  limited  time 
than  they  could  learn  by  using  the  time  for 
additional  study.  They  not  only  learn  how 
to  take  initiative  and  assume  responsibility, 
but  they  enable  the  teacher  to  do  much  more 
effective  work  with  the  regular  classes. 

This  same  fundamental  principle  of  organi- 
zation is  applied  to  the  pupils  themselves  in 
their  relations  with  one  another.  Fourth-  and 
fifth-grade  pupils  are  considered  too  old  for 
the  primary  manual  training  and  nature- 
study,  and  not  quite  old  enough  to  use  prof- 
itably the  laboratories  and  workshops  as 
independent  students.  They  are,  therefore, 
assigned  as  assistants  to  students  in  the 
higher  classes.  These  children  in  this  way 
learn  more  by  working  with  the  older  students 
than  they  can  be  taught  in  separate  classes  by 
themselves.  Not  only  does  the  younger  child 


?TATF   TFACMEftfr   COLLtOK 
SANTA    bAKBARA.   CALIFORNIA 


ORGANIZATION- 


learn  by  helping  the  older  and  watching  him 
and  asking  questions  of  him,  but  the  older 
learns  by  being  required  to  answer  the  ques- 
tions and  make  the  younger  child  understand 
what  he  is  doing  in  shop  or  laboratory.  The 
object  is  to  make  the  Gary  school,  in  the 
words  of  Superintendent  Wirt,  "as  much  as 
possible  like  a  large  family  wherein  the 
younger  children  are  learning  consciously 
and  unconsciously  from  the  older,  and  the 
latter  from  contact  with  the  younger  children 
are  learning  to  assume  responsibility  and 
take  the  initiative.  Some  one  has  said  that 
we  send  our  boy  to  school,  but  his  playmates, 
not  the  school  faculty,  educate  him.  This  is 
true  because  in  the  conventional  school  the 
faculty  does  not  utilize  the  playmates  as  as- 
sistant instructors."  This  "helper"  system 
has  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable 
features  of  the  Gary  schools. 

For  the  pupil,  organization  means  a  degree 
of  flexibility  and  individual  instruction  ex- 
traordinary for  a  public  school.  Except  in  the 
lowest  grades,  the  pupils  are  classified  by 
subjects  as  well  as  by  grades,  so  that  practi- 
cally college  methods  obtain.  Each  pupil  has 


102  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

his  own  schedule  or  program,  just  as  the 
college  student  has.  The  executive  princi- 
pal corresponds  to  the  college  registrar  in 
supervising  these  individual  records.  The 
pupil  is  promoted  by  subjects  and  not  by 
grades,  and  may  be  promoted  or  demoted  at 
any  time  by  the  supervisor  of  instruction, 
acting  with  the  teacher.  Grades,  therefore, 
represent  merely  years  of  schooling  and  not 
classes  which  are  promoted  as  units.  Each 
regular  class  has  a  maximum  register  of 
forty,  but  the  class  does  not  work  as  a  unit, 
any  more  than  a  college  class  of  sophomores 
works  as  a  unit.  Some  are  taking  one  group 
of  subjects,  some  another.  The  work  is  thus 
done  largely  in  small  groups,  or  even  as  in- 
dividuals. The  great  wealth  of  equipment 
and  the  economical  use  of  time  permit  a  large 
amount  of  practically  individual  instruction. 
The  students  of  each  grade  are  classified 
into  three  groups  —  rapid,  normal,  and  slow 
workers.  The  rapid  workers  can  easily  com- 
plete the  twelve  years'  course  in  ten  years. 
They  may  then  enter  college  at  sixteen  years 
of  age.  The  great  majority  of  the  Gary  pupils 
who  go  to  college  actually  come  from  this 


ORGANIZATION  103 

rapid-working  group.  The  normal  workers 
complete  the  course  in  twelve  years,  and  the 
slow  workers  in  fourteen.  Many  of  the  slow 
workers  do  not  attempt  to  complete  the 
course,  but  specialize  in  the  industrial  de- 
partments. This  grouping  contemplates  the 
recognition  of  differences  in  the  mental  en- 
dowments and  ambitions  of  children  of  the 
same  age,  so  that  means  are  provided  for  the 
shortening  of  school  life  for  some  children 
and  the  lengthening  of  it  for  others.  Every 
child  is,  as  far  as  possible,  working  along 
with  his  equals,  so  that  the  bright  child  is  not 
held  back  and  rendered  listless  by  the  pres- 
ence of  slower  members  in  the  class,  nor  is  the 
slow  child  discouraged  by  the  competition  of 
the  brighter  ones.  Every  pupil  may  go  as 
fast  as  he  can,  and  may  specialize  on  the 
work  which  he  can  best  do.  The  presence  of  a 
great  variety  of  activities  makes  it  possible 
for  the  children  who  falter  on  their  intellec- 
tual work  to  give  more  attention  to  the  man- 
ual or  artistic  or  physical  work  in  which  they 
may  excel. 

A  special  investigation  was  made  in  1914 
into  the  regrading  of  the  pupils  of  two  ninth- 


104  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

grade  algebra  classes  in  the  Emerson  School. 
The  results  of  regrading  the  classes  into 
rapid  and  slow  workers  showed  marked  im- 
provement in  the  interest  displayed  in  the 
algebra  work,  especially  on  the  part  of  the 
slow  workers.  No  failures  were  reported 
among  the  rapid  workers,  and  only  three 
among  the  slow  workers,  and  these  were  due 
to  absence  from  class.  The  total  class  average 
for  the  slow  division  was  in  three  months 
raised  five  per  cent.  In  the  Jefferson  School, 
which  has  been  operated  on  the  Gary  plan 
longer  than  any  other  school,  fifty- two  per 
cent  of  the  children  are  one  or  more  years 
ahead  of  their  normal  grades. 

Many  features  of  the  Gary  plan  afford  ex- 
traordinary opportunities  for  extra  assistance 
in  study  and  work.  The  pupil  may  take  extra 
work  in  a  subject  during  a  proportion  of  his 
play,  auditorium,  or  shop  hours.  If  he  is  a 
member  of  the  "X"  school,  he  may  get  the 
same  lesson  repeated  for  him  the  same  day  by 
attending  the  parallel  class  in  the  "  Y"  school 
held  at  a  different  hour.  He  may  come  to  the 
voluntary  Saturday  school  and  get  extra 
coaching  from  the  teacher,  and  the  vacation 


ORGANIZATION  105 

school  provides  additional  opportunity  to 
make  up  back  work.  No  home  work  is  al- 
lowed, except  to  a  small  extent  in  the  high- 
school  grades.  The  long  school  day,  and  the 
freedom  which  the  teacher  has  to  distribute 
her  time  and  to  conduct  supervised  study, 
obviate  the  necessity  for  carrying  books 
away  from  the  school.  Since  the  state  law 
does  not  authorize  the  schools  to  provide 
free  textbooks,  these  must  be  provided  by  the 
pupil,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  Gary 
classes,  bought  by  the  school  and  loaned  co- 
operatively to  a  number  of  classes.  Since 
home  work  is  not  permitted,  the  books  may 
be  kept  in  the  school  and  distributed  to  the 
classes  as  they  require  them. 

The  headquarters  of  the  pupil  in  the  school 
are  not  in  the  classroom,  as  in  other  public 
schools.  It  is  the  teacher  and  not  the  class 
which  is  assigned  to  the  room.  The  teacher 
remains  in  the  room  and  the  pupils  go  to  him 
or  her,  moving  about  individually  from  class- 
room, shop,  laboratory,  etc.,  according  to  the 
printed  schedule  card  which  each  pupil  holds. 
The  child's  headquarters  is  the  spacious  lock- 
ers which  line  the  corridors  in  the  basements. 


106  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

Each  child  has  a  private  locker  for  books, 
papers,  and  wraps.  Strictly  speaking,  the  pu- 
pil in  the  Gary  school,  except  in  the  lowest 
grades,  has  no  "teacher,"  except  the  "register 
teacher."  The  departmental  system  gives 
him  many  teachers,  but  no  teacher.  This 
system  and  the  self-governing  responsibil- 
ity for  his  own  schedule  is  intended  to  cul- 
tivate initiative  and  responsibility  on  the 
part  of  the  pupil.  It  brings  him  from  an  early 
age  into  contact  with  different  personalities, 
gives  him  the  benefit  of  expert  teaching  and 
a  variety  of  movement  and  exercise.  The 
introduction  of  these  free  college  methods 
into  the  common  school  is,  in  the  light  of 
public-school  practice,  a  daring  experiment, 
but  the  Gary  school  experience  seems  to  show 
that  it  is  quite  possible  to  give  the  younger 
children  a  large  measure  of  freedom  and  in- 
dividuality of  treatment. 

Most  of  the  schedules  of  the  pupils  are  ar- 
ranged with  reference  to  the  requirements  of 
the  state  course  of  instruction,  specialization 
not  being  permitted,  of  course,  except  in  the 
higher  grades,  or  where  some  special  weak- 
ness causes  repeated  failure.  Yet  the  Gary 


ORGANIZATION  107 

schools  have  about  twenty  per  cent  of  special 
students  who  do  not  intend  to  finish  the 
course  and  are  specializing  in  some  depart- 
ments. But  since,  owing  to  the  individualiza- 
tion  of  schedules,  every  pupil  is  in  a  sense  a 
"special  student,"  the  presence  of  this  large 
number  of  students  causes  no  administrative 
confusion,  nor  are  the  special  students  —  as 
would  be  the  case  in  many  schools  operated 
on  a  uniform  plan  —  marked  off  invidiously 
from  those  who  are  following  the  more  regular 
course. 

The  segregation  of  sexes  which  the  visitor 
finds  in  some  of  the  Gary  schools  and  courses 
is  not  the  result  of  any  prejudice  against 
coeducation.  (All  the  activities  are  open 
equally  to  boys  and  girls  alike,  so  that  girls 
are  found  in  the  printing-shop  and  in  the 
wood-working  classes,  etc.)  It  is  due  to  the 
effort  to  give  each  boy  and  girl  what  he  or  she 
needs.  The  organization  of  many  classes, 
such  as  play,  gymnasium,  personal  hygiene, 
and  the  manual  activities  which  do  not  ap- 
peal to  the  girls,  or  the  domestic  science 
which  does  not  appeal  to  the  boys,  required 
this  unisexual  classification,  and  sometimes  it 


108  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

has  been  retained  to  avoid  the  break-up  of 
classes  in  related  subjects. 

An  example  of  this  effort  to  provide  for  all 
kinds  of  students  in  the  Gary  school  is  the 
first-year  college  work  which  is  offered  to 
students  who  wish  to  remain  in  the  school  for 
post-graduate  work.  The  Gary  school  en- 
deavors thus  to  overlap  the  college,  just  as  it 
has  made  the  common  school  dovetail  into 
the  high  school,  and  the  day  school  into  the 
evening  school.  When  the  Gary  high-school 
students  have  come  up  through  the  Gary 
schools,  it  is  hoped  to  be  able  to  send  students 
from  the  local  schools  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
so  prepared  that  they  may  complete  the  ordi- 
nary college  course  in  two  years. 

A  word  should  be  said  about  the  interrela- 
tion of  this  flexibility  of  schedule  with  the 
"helper**  system.  The  choice  of  what  sub- 
jects the  pupil  shall  study  is  not  as  willful  and 
anarchical  as  it  may  seem.  In  the  lower 
grades  the  regular  studies  are,  of  course,  pre- 
scribed. English,  arithmetic,  history,  and 
geography  must  be  studied  by  all,  with  the 
attendant  "application**  and  "auditorium" 
work.  All  must  have  physical  education, 


ORGANIZATION  109 

music  and  expression,  and  some  form  of  man- 
ual and  scientific  work.  The  courses  in  sci- 
ence, industrial  work,  and  music  and  expres- 
sion, below  the  high  school,  are  taken  in 
alternation.  Each  occupies  one  third  of  the 
school  year.  The  individual  choice  of  the 
pupil  comes  in  what  science  or  what  shop 
work  he  or  she  will  take.  The  beginning  is 
not  by  chance,  but  really  the  result  of  a  natu- 
ral process  of  selection  by  the  child.  All  the 
early  years  are  made  a  sort  of  unconscious 
prevocational  school  in  which  the  child  tries 
out  his  interests  and  powers.  Things  are 
neither  forced  on  him  nor  aimlessly  selected. 
The  child  in  kindergarten  or  first  three  grades 
moves  about  the  halls  and  corridors.  Since 
the  shops  and  studios  and  laboratories  are 
not  segregated,  but  distributed  over  the 
building,  so  that  all  seem  equally  significant, 
the  child  has  every  opportunity  to  become 
familiar  with  them.  His  curiosity  is  aroused, 
and,  unaided,  he  is  tempted  to  peer  in 
through  the  glass  doors  and  windows,  and 
wonder  what  the  older  children  are  doing. 
When  the  child  has  reached  the  fourth  grade, 
he  already  has  an  idea  of  what  activity  in- 


110  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

terests  him,  and  what  he  would  like  to  try. 
Fourth-  and  fifth-grade  children  then  go  in  as 
helpers  to  the  seventh-,  eighth-,  and  ninth- 
grade  students  in  shops,  studios,  and  labora- 
tories. If  the  child  finds  the  work  does  not 
interest  him,  he  still  has  a  chance  to  try  some 
other  work,  and  thus  gradually  sifts  out  what 
is  likely  to  be  valuable  to  him  for  a  vocation 
or  avocation.  If  he  has  special  skill,  he  may 
specialize  in  the  higher  grades.  Such  a  plan 
seems  to  be  admirably  devised  to  bring  out 
whatever  capacities  there  are  in  the  pupils, 
and  to  insure  almost  automatically  their  in- 
terest in  work  which  in  many  schools  is  mere 
unintelligent  drudgery. 

Vocational  guidance  in  such  a  system  is 
simple  and  effective.  The  "auditorium" 
teacher,  in  charge  of  the  presentation  of  ma- 
terial relating  to  the  shops  and  industries,  is 
able  to  give  information  as  to  the  desirability 
of  the  several  trades  and  industries  as  occu- 
pations. For  example,  the  school  plumber 
may  prepare  with  his  students  a  plumbing 
outfit  for  an  ordinary  dwelling  or  apartment, 
and  give  a  lesson  on  the  way  in  which  plumb- 
ing should  be  cared  for  in  the  home.  The 


ORGANIZATION  111 

plumbing  instructor  may  know  much  about 
plumbing,  but  very  little  about  presenting  his 
information  to  a  large  body  of  students.  The 
"auditorium"  teacher  would  assume  the 
responsibility  of  supervising  such  auditorium 
presentations  in  order  that  they  might  be 
dramatically  effective.  The  day  that  the 
plumber  and  his  students  present  the  ad- 
vantages and  disadvantages  of  plumbing  as  a 
trade,  the  teacher  of  industries  may  announce 
to  the  boys  in  "auditorium"  period  that  for 
the  remainder  of  the  week  any  boy  may  be 
excused  for  a  personal  consultation  with  him 
concerning  the  desirability  of  joining  a  class 
in  plumbing.  Students  are  thus  directed  in 
their  shop  assignments  by  this  "auditorium" 
teacher  of  industries.  Vocational  guidance  is 
thus  made  possible  as  far  as  it  is  probably 
wise  to  undertake  such  guidance  in  the  school 
at  present.  Such  a  plan  directs  the  mechani- 
cally inclined  among  the  children  by  enlisting 
their  interest  and  then  their  will.  The  "audi- 
torium" teachers  for  the  other  activities  may 
also  act  as  advisers  in  the  same  way.  Teacher 
and  pupil  thus  cooperate,  not  in  any  haphazard 
fashion,  but  systematically,  in  studying  the 


112  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

various  activities  with  a  view  to  their  future 
use  as  a  vocation.  Such  an  attitude  not  only 
organizes  and  motivates  the  work,  but  gives 
it  seriousness  and  purpose.  Every  detail  of 
organization  in  the  Gary  school  is  devised  to 
make  the  pupil  as  well  as  the  teacher  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  school  life,  not  only  in  its 
own  meaning,  but  in  its  relation  to  the  out- 
side world. 


VI 

CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING 

THE  Gary  curriculum,  in  spite  of  its  many 
special  features,  is  neither  eccentric  nor  over- 
crowded. It  follows  the  regular  course  of 
study  laid  down  for  Indiana  schools  by  the 
State  Department  of  Public  Instruction. 
Students  who  follow  the  full  course  may  be 
ready  to  enter  college  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 
The  additional  facilities  of  the  Gary  schools 
are  not  gamed  at  the  expense,  therefore,  of 
the  ordinary  course  of  education.  They  are 
made  possible  through  a  more  ingenious  dis- 
tribution of  time  throughout  a  longer  school 
day,  and  by  an  integration  and  interrelation 
of  subjects  which  tend  to  vitalize  them  all. 

The  regular  studies  in  the  lower  grades  are 
conducted  along  the  conventional  lines,  with 
the  addition  of  the  "application"  work  which 
has  been  described.  The  English  work  is 
further  vitalized  through  the  employment 
of  special  teachers  for  "expression,"  who 
alternate  with  the  special  teachers  of  music. 


114  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

"Expression"  is  a  mixture  of  elocution  and 
dramatics.  The  aim  of  the  instruction  is 
evidently  to  bring  the  pupils  to  read  and 
speak  with  more  intelligence  and  apprecia- 
tion than  is  usually  done.  It  is  to  give  the 
training  which  will  bear  fruit  in  increased 
expressiveness  hi  all  the  studies  of  the  school, 
in  all  writing  and  reciting,  in  "auditorium" 
and  "application"  work.  So  far,  owing  to 
the  peculiar  requirements  of  talent  in  the 
teachers  and  on  account  of  the  lack  of  good 
American  elocutionary  and  dramatic  tradi- 
tion, the  enterprise  can  scarcely  be  called 
more  than  a  frank  and  important  experiment. 
For  the  Gary  curriculum  with  its  emphasis 
on  self-activity,  such  training  in  expressive- 
ness is  essential,  and  it  can  be  depended  upon 
to  improve  rapidly  in  quality  as  the  children 
and  teachers  catch  the  spirit  of  the  schools 
and  get  the  practice  of  "auditorium"  and 
"application"  work. 

The  importance  of  the  equable  division  of 
time  between  regular  studies  and  special  ac- 
tivities has  already  been  discussed.  An  im- 
portant feature  of  the  Gary  teaching  is  the 
avoidance  of  that  excessive  subdivision  of 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    115 

subjects  which  has  affected  curriculum-mak- 
ing in  many  schools.  History  and  geography 
are  here  uniformly  taught  together;  language, 
grammar,  spelling,  reading,  and  writing  are 
taught  as  much  as  possible  together  as  Eng- 
lish; physiology  is  taught  in  connection  with 
zoology.  Since  the  teacher  is  left  much  ini- 
tiative in  the  distribution  of  her  time,  she 
may  emphasize  and  correlate  the  different 
studies  as  she  finds  necessary.  All  the  Eng- 
lish branches  are  taught  constantly  in  con- 
nection with  the  other  studies.  The  history 
or  physics  class  may  begin  with  a  spelling- 
lesson.  Compositions  in  science  or  history, 
or  the  brochures  issued  by  the  science  de- 
partments, are  supervised  by  the  English 
teacher.  We  have  seen  how  the  shop  and 
commercial  instructors  give  special  work  in 
practical  English  and  mathematics.  The 
effort  is  constant  in  the  Gary  curriculum  to 
teach  a  subject,  not  as  an  isolated  body  of 
subject-matter,  but  as  knowledge  which  may 
bear  on  any  or  all  the  other  departments  of 
the  school  community. 

Studies  are  taught  also  with  as  much  bear- 
ing as  possible  on  the  social  activities  of  the 


116  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

larger  city  community.  The  subject-matter 
in  the  history  and  geography  classes  is  really 
"The  Sociological  World  we  Live  in,"  and 
textbooks,  histories,  atlases,  globes,  news- 
papers, and  magazines  become  the  reference 
sources  and  the  materials  for  understanding 
that  world.  The  working-out  of  such  prin- 
ciples must,  of  course,  be  a  matter  of  experi- 
mentation by  able  teachers,  and  the  work 
cannot  be  described  in  any  formal  manner. 
Illustrations  of  some  of  the  successful  methods 
can,  however,  be  given.  The  history  room 
in  the  Emerson  School,  for  instance,  is  found 
by  the  visitor  to  be  almost  smothered  in 
maps  and  charts,  most  of  them  made  by  the 
children  themselves,  in  their  effort  to  "learn 
by  doing,"  and  to  contribute  their  part  to 
the  school  community.  A  large  Indiana  bal- 
lot, a  chart  of  the  State  Senate,  a  diagram 
of  the  state  administration,  a  table  showing 
the  evolution  of  American  political  parties, 
with  many  war  maps  and  pictures,  covered 
the  walls.  The  place  is  a  workshop  rather 
than  a  classroom,  with  broad  tables  for  map- 
drawing,  and  a  fine  spread  of  papers  and 
magazines.  The  ninth-grade  Gary  children 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    117 

are,  in  fact,  conducting  what  some  progres- 
sive colleges  have  introduced  as  "labora- 
tory work  in  history." 

When  the  writer  visited  the  school,  the 
town  of  Gary  was  waging  a  campaign  for  a 
new  water-front  park.  The  history  class  had 
for  some  weeks  been  using  this  public  issue  as 
a  text  for  their  work.  They  had  been  study- 
ing "The  City:  A  Healthful  Place  in  Which 
to  Live  (with  special  reference  to  parks)." 
Outlines  had  been  worked  up  from  reference 
books  in  the  school  branch  of  the  public  li- 
brary. These  were  read  to  the  class  and  dis- 
cussed by  them.  Such  a  course  became  al- 
most one  in  town-planning,  one  of  the  most 
fascinating  and  significant  of  current  social 
interests,  and  one  which  packs  into  itself  a 
maximum  of  historical,  sociological,  and  geo- 
graphical information.  Such  a  course  pro- 
vided an  admirable  motive  for  a  review  of 
history  from  a  practical  local  point  of  view 
which  all  the  intelligent  pupils  could  appre- 
ciate. The  outline  follows:  — 


118  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

The  City:  A  Healthful  Place  in  Which  to  Live: 
Emphasis  on  Parks 

1.  Athenian  recreation  centers. 

2.  Roman  opportunities  for  recreation. 

3.  Mediaeval  cities:  England. 

4.  Mediaeval  cities:  Continental  Europe. 

5.  The  modern  British  city. 

6.  Modern  cities  in  Argentina,  Chile,  Brazil. 

7.  The  large  German  city. 

8.  The  small  German  city. 

9.  Paris,  and  the  smaller  French  cities. 

10.  Colonial  cities  of  America. 

11.  American  cities  during  the  last  quarter  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

12.  American  cities  before  the  Civil  War. 

13.  American  cities  from  the  Civil  War  to  the 
twentieth  century. 

14.  American  cities  in  the  twentieth  century. 

15.  How  smaller  cities  are  replanning. 

16.  Parks  in  large  American  cities. 

17.  The  city-planning  conference. 

18.  Statistics  showing  total  area  of  city,  and 
percentage  of  park  space. 

19.  Playgrounds  of  Chicago  and  New  York. 

20.  The  Gary  plan  of  schools  and  playgrounds  on 
the  same  site. 

The  class  in  ancient  history,  owing  to  a 
belief  on  the  part  of  the  instructor  that  no 
child  should  be  allowed  to  leave  school  with- 
out a  background  of  modern  affairs,  devotes 
one  day  a  week  to  contemporary  history.  A 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    119 

weekly  digest  of  the  ten  most  important 
events  is  kept  in  the  history  notebook,  ar- 
ranged, three  for  foreign  events,  three  for 
national  events,  and  four  for  local.  Reports 
are  prepared  and  read  upon  assigned  maga- 
zine articles,  especially  from  the  Literary  Di- 
gest, Outlook,  and  Independent.  Everything 
is  thus  done  to  get  the  clue  of  historical 
study  from  the  interesting  events  around  the 
pupils.  History  is  studied  as  much  as  possible 
backward,  instead  of  forward. 

In  1912-13  the  classes  in  modern  history 
became  interested  in  the  past  of  the  Balkan 
nations,  in  order  to  understand  the  reason 
for  their  alliance  against  the  Turkish  Empire. 
A  digression  was,  therefore,  made  to  clear  this 
point,  and  to  vitalize  thereby  the  history  of 
the  related  European  countries.  The  next 
year  a  similar  interest  was  kindled  in  Mexico 
and  our  relations  with  the  Spanish-American 
republics.  During  the  past  year  the  history 
instructor  has  found  the  study  of  the  last 
two  centuries  of  western  Europe  to  move 
along  without  effort,  owing  to  the  interest 
in  the  great  war. 

Such  a  study  of  history  clearly  obviates  the 


120  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

necessity  of  any  separate  study  of  "civics." 
History  and  geography  taught  in  this  way  be- 
come part  of  one's  general  information.  Mag- 
azines and  newspapers  are  freely  used.  The 
systematic  reading  of  the  best  weeklies  and 
papers  surely  is  an  important  training,  in  an 
age  of  so  much  cheap  and  worthless  reading- 
matter. 

One  history  class  had  been  making  a 
comparison  of  Athenian  with  Gary  education. 
This  is  another  illustration  of  that  constant 
effort  to  make  the  pupils  realize  the  meaning 
of  what  they  are  doing  and  what  is  around 
them.  The  effort  of  the  Gary  education  is 
to  make  the  child  acquainted  with  the  pur- 
poses of  his  school.  He  is  not  taught  as  an 
inferior  who  must  take  without  question  wis- 
dom from  immensely  superior  teachers,  but  as 
an  equal  and  democratic  citizen  of  his  school 
community,  learning  wherever  and  whenever 
he  can.  The  ancient  history  class  had  for  its 
motto:  "To  improve  its  members  as  Ameri- 
can citizens  by  a  study  of  the  experiences  of 
the  ancient  peoples."  It  would  be  difficult  to 
imagine  a  more  admirable  reason  for  his- 
torical study  than  this  phrase,  the  natural 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    121 

expression  of  the  Gary  child  who  wrote  the 
constitution  for  the  class  organization.  Such 
"social  introspection"  is  as  rare  an  intellec- 
tual quality  as  it  is  valuable. 

The  history  classes  in  the  lower  grades 
use  sand-tables  to  reproduce  the  topography 
of  the  localities  which  are  being  studied,  or 
to  describe  the  progress  of  some  battle  or  in- 
vasion. One  of  the  pupils  in  1912  constructed 
with  his  own  hands  in  the  wood-working 
shops  a  miniature  Roman  temple  about  five 
feet  in  length,  the  plans  of  which  he  had 
worked  out  from  the  descriptions  in  the  his- 
tories. These  classes  often  engage  in  debates, 
and  the  written  reports  which  are  sufficiently 
interesting  are  read  in  "auditorium,"  and 
often  printed  in  the  local  newspapers.  Bulle- 
tin boards  are  placed  in  the  hall  for  display- 
ing important  clippings.  The  pupils  bring 
these,  and  classify  them  under  the  headings, 
—  foreign  news,  American  news,  state,  city, 
and  county  news,  pictures  and  cartoons,  and 
items  on  the  special  topics  that  are  being 
studied.  The  history  classes  have  charge  of 
a  small  historical  museum  in  the  corridors, 
which  contains  a  loan  collection  of  Indian 


122  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

relics  and  of  pottery  from  Central  America. 

The  teaching  of  science  occupies  a  unique 
place  in  the  Gary  schools.  Just  as  the  history 
and  geography  are  taught  as  clues  to  the  so- 
cial and  political  world  around  the  pupil,  so 
the  science  is  used  to  acclimatize  him  to  the 
natural  world.  The  theory  is  that  children 
should  commence  the  study  of  the  sciences 
while  their  minds  are  still  plastic  and  their 
interest  in  natural  phenomena  keen.  The  per- 
sistent questions  which  the  child  asks  are 
attempts  to  get  an  understanding  of  the 
world  he  lives  in.  Unless  these  questions  are 
answered,  his  interest  is  apt  to  wane  as  he 
grows  older.  And  unless  he  acquires  a  fa- 
miliarity with  nature  that  is  accompanied  by 
true  scientific  information,  he  is  apt  to  get 
only  a  satisfied  feeling  of  knowledge  without, 
any  true  appreciation. 

Science  in  the  Gary  schools,  consequently, 
goes  beyond  the  simple  nature-study  taught 
now  in  most  elementary  schools.  The  child 
has  experience  with  the  laboratory  at  an 
early  age.  The  smaller  children  from  the 
third,  fourth,  fifth,  or  sixth  grades  go  into 
the  chemistry,  physics,  botany,  and  zoology 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    123 

laboratories  as  "helpers"  or  "observers "to 
the  work  of  the  high-school  classes.  On  the 
theory  that  "children  are  natural  scientists" 
they  are  allowed  contact  with  apparatus  and 
materials.  It  is  said,  in  fact,  that  experience 
shows  the  smaller  children  to  be  as  careful 
as  the  older,  and  actually  to  cause  less  break- 
age and  damage. 

The  science  classes  in  the  lower  grades 
are  taught  neither  in  formal  recitation  nor 
in  formal  laboratory  work,  but  in  a  combina- 
tion which  the  instructors  describe  as  "ex- 
perience meetings."  Pupils  and  teacher  meet 
on  common  ground  to  exchange  ideas  about 
their  experiences  in  dealing  with  natural 
phenomena.  The  outside  world  is  treated  as 
a  great  laboratory,  and  these  "experience 
meetings"  are  used  to  interpret  the  children's 
experiences  in  terms  of  scientific  principles. 
There  are  demonstrations  by  the  children, 
assisted  by  the  teacher;  a  little  individual 
laboratory  work;  and  considerable  vocal  read- 
ing from  textbooks  and  scientific  story-books. 

The  Gary  science  instructors  believe  that 
much  time  and  money  have  been  wasted 
in  the  teaching  of  science  in  high  schools, 


124  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

owing  to  the  elaborate  methods  which  have 
treated  the  students  as  if  the  purpose  was 
to  make  professional  scientists  of  them  all. 
Children,  it  is  believed  in  Gary,  cannot  re- 
sort to  the  detailed  research  methods  of  sci- 
entists, but  must  have  quick  answers  and 
quick  results.  There  is  a  waste  of  energy  in 
trying  to  duplicate  in  the  laboratory  the  fun- 
damental experiences  of  life  which  the  chil- 
dren are  constantly  seeing  outside  in  the 
great  laboratory  of  nature. 

The  care  of  the  flowers  and  plants  and 
gardens,  the  care  of  the  animals  in  the  zoo, 
and  the  study  of  their  habits  offer  endless 
concrete  material  for  building  up  the  theo- 
retical side  of  botany  and  zoology.  The  pu- 
pils are  trained  to  observe  and  to  write  down 
what  they  see.  One  class  in  zoology  last  year 
made  an  illustrated  booklet  descriptive  of 
the  school  zoo.  The  text  was  written  by  the 
pupils,  the  photographs  prepared  by  them, 
and  then  the  booklet  was  tastefully  printed 
in  the  school  printing-shop  by  the  pupils 
themselves.  The  result  was  a  charming  bro- 
chure, in  which  not  only  the  pupils  them- 
selves, but  the  whole  school  could  take  pride 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    125 

and  pleasure.  Such  scientific  study  becomes 
an  intimate  and  vital  part  of  the  entire  school 
life. 

For  the  physics  classes,  the  lighting,  heat- 
ing, and  ventilating  systems  of  the  school 
afford  a  practical  textbook.  In  the  Jefferson 
School,  where  the  industrial  shop  is  built 
around  the  boiler  room,  the  heating  plant 
becomes  an  integral  part  of  the  shop.  The 
physics  classes  study  the  climate  and  the 
weather.  They  study  particularly  the  princi- 
ples of  the  machines  used  in  the  different 
shops.  Each  shop  may  thus  act  as  an  exten- 
sion of  the  physics  laboratory.  Classes  of  even 
the  smaller  children  are  sent  to  take  apart 
machines  like  the  bicycle,  cream-separator, 
lawn-mower,  and  explain  the  construction. 
The  automobile  and  motor-cycle  provide 
many  practical  lessons.  An  old  automobile 
which  needs  tinkering  up  is  considered  in  the 
Gary  school  to  be  almost  a  physics  labora- 
tory in  itself.  The  writer  witnessed  a  physics 
class  of  twelve-year-old  girls  who,  with  their 
nine-year-old  "helpers,"  were  studying  the 
motor-cycle.  With  that  disregard  for  bound- 
aries which  characterizes  all  Gary  education, 


126  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

the  hour  began  with  a  spelling-lesson.  The 
names  of  the  parts  and  processes  of  the  ma- 
chine were  rehearsed  orally  and  then  written. 
After  the  words  were  learned,  the  parts  of  the 
machine  were  explained  by  the  instructor 
while  the  class  spelled  the  words  over  again. 
Their  memory  of  certain  physical  principles, 
such  as  vaporization,  evaporation,  were 
called  again  into  play.  Then  the  instructor 
set  the  motor-cycle  going,  the  girls  again 
describing  its  action.  When  this  had  been 
thoroughly  gone  over,  the  class  copied  from 
the  blackboard  sentences  describing  the 
processes  and  parts,  but  omitting  certain 
crucial  words  which  the  pupil  had  to  supply. 
The  intense  vivacity  and  interest  of  the  little 
group,  the  intelligence  with  which  these 
small  children  grasped  the  principles  in- 
volved, made  the  lesson  seem  a  model  of  ex- 
pert teaching.  It  was  an  excellent  illustration 
of  the  way  concrete  processes  may  be  used  to 
build  up  scientific  knowledge.  It  is  interesting 
to  notice  that  no  distinction  is  made  between 
boys  and  girls  in  their  science  work. 

This  lively  interest  in  scientific  processes 
may  have  unexpected  results.    The  story  is 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    127 

told  of  a  high-school  boy  who,  while  the 
board  of  education  was  discussing  means  of 
fire-prevention,  made  an  investigation  of 
methods  and  processes  which  was  so  excel- 
lent that  it  was  forthwith  adopted  by  the 
board. 

This  incident  is  typical  of  the  way  in  which 
the  scientific  work  in  the  schools  may  corre- 
late with  the  wider  social  community.  Just 
as  the  history  classes  may  bring  the  pupil 
into  touch  with  the  political  life  outside  the 
school,  so  the  physics  and  chemistry  class 
may  connect  him  with  the  industry  of  the 
community  and  with  those  public  services 
into  which  scientific  processes  enter.  A  boy, 
for  example,  brings  to  the  chemistry  class  a 
bag  of  low-grade  iron  ore  which  he  has  found 
in  the  vicinity.  The  class,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  teacher,  constructs  a  simple  elec- 
tric furnace  and  reduces  the  ore.  This  experi- 
ment is  then  used  as  the  basis  for  a  study  of 
the  great  steel  industry  upon  which  the  city 
of  Gary  is  founded. 

A  part  of  the  chemistry  work  makes  a 
direct  contribution  to  the  city.  Gary  has  the 
good  fortune,  or  the  good  sense,  to  have  as 


128  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

chemistry  teacher  in  the  Emerson  School 
the  man  who  acts  as  municipal  chemist  for 
the  city.  As  a  result,  the  school  laboratory 
becomes  an  extension  of  the  municipal  lab- 
oratory. The  high-school  chemistry  pupils 
assist  the  chemist  just  as  the  smaller  chil- 
dren assist  them.  With  the  chemist-instruc- 
tor the  pupils  test  the  city  water  and  the 
various  milk  supplies.  Under  the  sanitary 
inspector  they  visit,  as  part  of  their  "appli- 
cation" work,  dairies,  factories,  bakeries, 
food-stores.  Last  year  the  class  issued  a 
"Milk  Bulletin,"  containing  general  informa- 
tion, with  reports  of  then*  tests.  The  various 
articles  were  recorded  as  part  of  the  English 
composition  work,  and  the  bulletin  was 
printed  by  the  pupils  in  the  school  printing- 
shop.  In  quality  these  bulletins  seemed 
scarcely  inferior  to  what  an  agricultural 
school  might  issue.  On  their  inspection 
rounds,  the  class  takes  samples  of  sugars 
and  candies  from  the  various  shops  of  the 
town,  and  tests  them  in  the  laboratory  for 
purity  and  for  the  use  of  harmless  coloring 
matter.  Another  class  experiments  with  the 
soft  drinks  sold  in  the  town,  testing  their 


CURRICULUM:  LEARNING  BY  DOING    129 

composition,  and  studying  physiological 
effects.  The  children  are  practically  deputy 
food-inspectors,  and  make  their  reports  on 
the  official  blanks.  It  is  said  that  the  result 
of  this  sort  of  inspection  is  that  in  a  prose- 
cution for  violation  of  the  pure-food  laws  in 
Gary  a  case  has  never  been  lost. 

The  children  test  also  the  materials  sup- 
plied to  the  schools,  the  coal,  cement,  etc., 
to  see  if  they  come  up  to  the  specifications. 
They  are  not  only  using  the  things  around 
them  for  practical  textbooks,  but  they  are 
able  to  turn  their  knowledge  immediately 
into  work  which  is  immensely  beneficial,  not 
only  to  themselves,  but  to  the  whole  com- 
munity. The  value  of  enlisting  pupils  in  this 
inspection  work,  of  training  them  to  observe 
and  criticize  and  test  the  physical  conditions 
under  which  they  live,  is  incalculable.  For 
even  a  small  proportion  of  children  to  get 
this  scientific-deputy-inspector  habit,  and  to 
get  used  to  thinking  in  terms  of  qualitative 
and  quantitative  tests,  would  evidently  have 
some  effect  upon  political  and  social  condi- 
tions. Such  scientific  training  makes  science 
an  integral  part  of  lif e,  not  only  a  knowledge 


130  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

of  how  natural  forces  and  materials  behave, 
but  also  a  command  of  technical  resources 
in  making  them  behave  in  desirable  ways. 
The  pupils  in  such  a  school,  from  their 
earliest  years,  get  a  correct  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  science  in  ameliorating  condi- 
tions and  in  improving  the  healthfulness  and 
security  of  the  community  in  which  they  live. 
The  Gary  curriculum  seems  to  represent 
a  determined  effort  to  break  down  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  "utilitarian"  and  the 
"cultural."  All  the  subjects  are  taught,  as 
far  as  possible,  in  concrete  ways  which  shall 
draw  upon  familiar  experience  and  teach  the 
child  by  making  him  do  something.  That 
something  is  made,  as  far  as  possible,  an 
activity  which  will  enhance  the  life  of  the 
school  community,  or  contribute  to  the  so- 
cial community.  These  activities  are  "utili- 
tarian," but  they  are  at  the  same  time  pro- 
foundly educative.  Principles  are  never  lost 
sight  of  in  practice.  The  artistic  and  aca- 
demic work  take  equal  rank  with  the  man- 
ual. Both  "cultural"  and  "utilitarian"  are, 
in  fact,  subjected  to  the  "social."  This  is 
the  key  note  of  the  Gary  education. 


VII 

DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL 

THE  problems  of  discipline  in  a  Gary 
school  are  essentially  different  from  those  of 
public  schools  run  on  the  usual  semi-mili- 
tary plan.  The  large  degree  of  cooperation 
between  teachers  and  pupils  and  between 
pupils,  the  emphasis  on  laboratory,  shop, 
and  "application"  work,  where  freedom  of 
movement  and  conversation  is  essential, 
produces  a  more  natural  atmosphere,  and  a 
certain  amount  of  genuine  if  unconscious 
self-government.  The  children  in  the  Gary 
schools  are  generally  conscious  of  the  unique 
features  of  their  school;  they  understand 
what  the  school  is  trying  to  do.  This  sense, 
and  their  pride  in  its  fame,  cultivate  an  ad- 
mirable school  spirit  denied  to  those  schools 
which  are  operated  on  conventional  lines. 

The  organization  of  the  Gary  school  per- 
mits the  reduction  of  formal  discipline  to  a 
minimum.  It  allows  the  teachers  to  dispense 
with  disciplinary  rules  against  whispering, 


132  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

with  formal  punishments,  with  formal  marks 
or  demerits  for  conduct.  The  frequent  change 
of  activity,  with  opportunities  for  exercise 
throughout  the  day,  prevents  the  children 
from  becoming  nervously  overwrought.  They 
thus  escape  irritability  and  aimless  boister- 
ousness  when  left  to  themselves.  The  "ap- 
plication" and  shop  work  compel  attention, 
so  that  the  child  is  kept  busy  and  interested, 
and  the  mischievousness  that  arises  from 
idleness  or  distracted  attention  is  avoided. 
As  Professor  Dewey  says,  "  Trained  in  doing 
things,  the  child  will  be  able  to  keep  at  work 
and  to  think  of  the  other  people  around  him 
when  he  is  not  under  restraining  supervision." 
When  the  teacher's  r6le  changes  from  precep- 
tor to  that  of  helper,  it  is  obvious  that  what 
is  needed  in  the  classroom  is  not  so  much 
perfect  quiet  and  military  order  as  freedom  of 
expression  and  spontaneity. 

Visitors  to  the  Gary  schools  bear  witness 
to  the  peculiarly  beneficial  effects  of  this 
absence  of  formal  discipline.  The  free  and 
individual  way  in  which  the  children  move 
about  to  their  tasks  and  the  spontaneous 
way  in  which  they  talk  to  visitors  make  a 


DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL    133 

marked  impression.  In  classroom  or  labora- 
tory or  shop,  it  is  usual  to  find  about  as  much 
whispering  as  in  a  concert  audience,  with  the 
same  motives,  freed  of  "rules  of  order,"  for 
quiet.  A  natural  atmosphere  of  orderly  and 
tolerant  conduct  seems  to  be  formed  in  such 
a  school. 

The  writer  witnessed  an  interesting  study 
in  spontaneous  discipline  in  one  of  the  Sat- 
urday voluntary  classes  at  the  Froebel  School. 
The  wood-working  shop  was  filled  with  little 
boys  who  were  fussing  over  the  scraps  left  by 
the  week's  work  and  trying  to  make  toys  and 
knick-knacks  out  of  them.  The  teacher  was 
in  the  room,  but  was  exercising  no  control 
over  the  children.  Yet  each  little  boy  worked 
on  his  own  little  job  as  indefatigably  as  if  he 
were  under  a  drill-master.  If  any  of  them 
became  weary  and  was  moved  to  interfere 
with  another  small  worker,  he  was  apt  to  be 
brushed  off  as  if  he  were  an  irritating  fly. 
The  theory  at  the  back  of  such  freedom  is  that 
rules  in  the  school  tempt  to  infraction,  and 
school  discipline  is,  as  a  result,  largely  an 
attempt  to  solve  problems  which  the  rules 
directly  manufacture.  Some  visitors,  appalled 


134  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

by  the  freedom  of  the  Gary  schools,  look 
about  for  signs  of  depredation.  But  they  do 
not  seem  to  find  any.  The  visitor  gets  the 
impression  that  these  schools  have  acquired 
a  "public  sense."  The  schools  are  the  chil- 
dren's own  institution,  and  are  public  in  the 
same  broad  sense  that  streets  and  parks  are 
public.  The  tone  is  of  a  glorified  democratic 
club,  where  members  are  availing  them- 
selves of  privileges  which  they  know  are 
theirs.  One  expects  children,  unless  they  are 
challenged  to  inventive  wickedness,  no  more 
to  spoil  their  school  than  a  lawyer  is  likely 
to  deface  the  panels  of  his  club.  The  chil- 
dren seem  in  such  a  school  unaffectedly  to 
own  it,  and  to  use  it  as  a  mechanic  uses  his 
workshop  or  an  artist  his  studio.  The  halls 
in  the  Gary  school  become  really  school 
streets.  Benches  are  built  by  the  pupils 
along  the  walls,  where  children  are  seen  in- 
formally studying  together.  Or  one  comes 
upon  a  table  where  a  boy  is  drawing  a  map, 
having  been  excused  from  recitation,  on  the 
theory  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  every 
child  to  be  exposed  to  every  exercise  of  the 
class  when  he  might  do  something  more  im- 


DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL    135 

portant  outside.  The  children  come  with 
their  parents  to  night  school  and  play  and 
run  about  the  broad  halls  quite  unwatched. 
The  visitor  gets  the  idea  that  children  come 
to  such  a  school,  not  because  education  is 
compulsory  or  because  their  parents  send 
them  there  to  get  rid  of  them,  but  because 
what  is  done  there  is  so  interesting  that  they 
will  not  stay  away.  The  equipment,  used  so 
freely,  makes  the  school  a  substitute  for  the 
defects,  not  only  of  the  poorer  homes,  but 
of  the  well-to-do  also,  in  supplying  activities 
for  children. 

One  might  say  that  only  in  a  free  and 
varied  school  like  this  was  such  a  thing  as 
effective  discipline  possible.  When  school 
activities  are  as  attractive  as  they  are  in  the 
Gary  school,  deprivation  means  a  distinct 
punishment.  There  is  ready  at  hand  an  in- 
strument for  inculcating  reason  into  the  re- 
fractory which  is  as  powerful  as  the  stoutest 
disciplinarian  could  wish.  The  ordinary 
school  has  its  difficulties  with  discipline 
largely  because  it  tries  to  keep  up  a  military 
system  of  conduct  without  any  means,  now 
that  corporal  punishment  is  generally  abol- 


136  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

ished,  of  punishing  infractions.  Marks  prove 
ineffective,  "keeping  in"  punishes  the  keeper 
as  well  as  the  kept,  and  being  sent  home  is 
too  often  a  pleasure.  But  in  the  Gary  school, 
"being  sent  home"  would  mean  being  sent 
to  a  place  infinitely  less  interesting,  and  be- 
ing deprived  of  school  play  or  any  special  ac- 
tivity would  mean  a  real  hardship.  The  free 
and  spontaneous  discipline  of  the  Gary  school 
does  not  mean  that  there  is  no  discipline  at 
all.  Unruly  cases  are  sometimes  punished  se- 
verely by  the  executive  principal.  But  there 
is  little  talk  about  "mischievous  and  unruly 
boys."  Children  who,  in  spite  of  everything, 
are  "not  adapted  to  our  kind  of  a  school," 
may  go  to  the  school  farm.  This,  however,  is 
not  a  reform  school  for  juvenile  delinquents. 
Delicate  children  may  be  sent  there  for  a 
vacation  or  classes  go  for  a  holiday.  The 
farm  contains  a  hundred  acres,  with  a  model 
dairy,  good  orchards,  and  substantial  farm 
buildings.  A  graduate  from  one  of  the  state 
universities  is  in  charge,  and  is  working  to 
bring  the  farm  up  to  a  high  pitch  of  cultiva- 
tion and  production.  One  group  of  boys  who 
were  there  for  a  while,  some  of  whom  had  come 


DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL    137 

from  homes  surrounded  by  unwholesome 
conditions,  others  of  whom  wished  to  try 
farming  for  a  livelihood,  built  themselves 
living  quarters  and  a  clubroom.  They  were 
provided  with  a  teacher,  and  school  work 
went  on  with  the  farm  work.  The  boys  re- 
ceived fifteen  cents  an  hour  for  their  work, 
and  earned  enough  to  pay  their  board  and 
make  something  besides.  These  boys  finally 
drifted  back  to  the  Emerson  School  or  to 
work  in  the  factories.  But  the  farm  remains 
as  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  schools.  Efforts 
are  being  made  to  make  it  a  source  of  in- 
come and  an  object  lesson  to  farmers  in  the 
vicinity. 

Freedom  of  discipline  is  obtained  in  the 
Gary  schools  without  the  methods  of  "self- 
government"  and  "honor  systems"  which 
prevail  elsewhere.  "Where  the  teachers  retain 
all  authority,  such  schemes  can  be  little  more 
than  a  humiliating  pretense.  For  a  time 
an  elaborate  self-government  plan  was  tried 
in  the  Emerson  School  under  the  name  of 
"Boyville,"  with  a  sort  of  parody  of  muni- 
cipal functions.  But  it  seems  to  have  been 
too  unreal  to  last.  It  has  been  superseded  by 


138  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

a  "students'  council,"  elected  by  the  pupils 
of  the  upper  grades,  and  exercising  control 
over  athletics,  social,  and  other  student  affairs. 
This  students'  council  has  executive  charge 
of  the  "auditorium"  periods,  for  which  it 
elects  a  presiding  officer  and  secretary,  alter- 
nately a  boy  and  a  girl,  every  month.  The 
elections  for  councilors  are  conducted  in 
regular  form,  with  ballots  printed  by  the  pu- 
pils in  the  school  printing-shop.  Booths  are 
erected,  judges  appointed,  and  the  election 
carried  through,  after  a  campaign,  in  which 
the  parties  meet,  nominate  a  boy  and  girl  for 
each  office,  and  appoint  a  campaign  manager 
who  arranges  a  program  for  the  campaign. 
The  candidates  make  speeches,  giving  their 
views  and  the  arguments  for  their  policies. 

Like  everything  in  the  Gary  schools,  this 
political  practice  is  put  into  effect  on  a 
broader  scale.  During  a  recent  campaign  the 
students'  council  in  the  Emerson  School  ar- 
ranged a  public  meeting  at  which  promi- 
nent men  of  the  city  appeared  and  argued 
for  their  respective  parties.  The  meeting  was 
entirely  organized  and  managed  by  the  pu- 
pils. Such  practical  application  seems  far 


DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL    139 

more  real  and  instructive  than  the  usual  play 
at  self-government. 

Student  organization  in  the  Gary  schools 
grows  out  of  real  work.  Athletic  teams  and 
sports  of  various  kinds  are  connected  di- 
rectly with  the  gymnasium  work  and  organ- 
ized play.  Glee  clubs  and  orchestras  grow 
out  of  the  music  work.  A  monthly  paper  is 
conducted  by  the  high-school  pupils  as  part 
of  their  English  work,  and  printed  by  them 
in  the  school  printing-shop.  There  are, 
strictly  speaking,  no  "extra-curricular  activi- 
ties" in  the  Gary  schools.  The  curriculum 
deliberately  provides  for  all  wholesome  ac- 
tivities, and  the  student  interests  grow  out 
of  it.  Problems  of  "fraternities"  and  of  the 
control  of  school  athletics,  which  confront  so 
many  schools,  are  thus  avoided.  The  stu- 
dents do  not  get  into  the  habit  of  thinking  of 
their  clubs  and  teams  as  something  outside 
of  the  school  community  life. 

An  example  of  how  spontaneous  organiza- 
tion may  spring  up  is  that  of  the  boys'  ninth- 
grade  English  class  last  year  in  the  Emerson 
School,  which  formed  itself  into  the  Emer- 
son Improvement  Association.  It  tries  to 


140  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

suggest  civic  improvements  for  the  school 
community,  and  the  speaking  and  writing 
necessary  to  the  conducting  of  the  affairs 
of  the  organization  provide  the  basis  for  the 
English  work. 

This  illustrates  the  way  that  effort  is  made 
to  take  advantage  of  all  the  spontaneity  and 
initiative  which  pupils  display  in  organiza- 
tion. The  moral  effects  of  this  active  form  of 
education  are  clearly  great.  Professor  Dewey 
thinks  it  is  a  mistake  to  consider  that  an 
interesting  and  free  school  "makes  things 
too  easy  for  the  child."  In  the  ideal  school 
the  interests  and  needs  of  the  child  are  iden- 
tical. It  is  a  mistake,  he  says,  to  think  that 
interesting  things  are  necessarily  easy.  They 
may  be  hard,  but  the  interest  overcomes  the 
difficulty,  and  it  is  in  the  overcoming  that  the 
moral  value  lies.  Irksome  tasks  may  be  valu- 
able, but  it  is  not  in  their  irksomeness  that 
their  value  lies.  Work  that  appeals  to  pupils 
as  worth  while,  that  holds  out  the  promise 
of  resulting  in  something  to  their  own  or  the 
school's  interests,  involves  just  as  much  per- 
sistence and  concentration  as  work  given  by 
the  sternest  advocate  of  disciplinary  drill. 


DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL    141 

Most  of  the  visitors  to  the  Gary  schools 
bear  witness  to  the  excellent  tone  of  the  pu- 
pils, "the  free  and  natural  way,"  to  quote 
one  authoritative  teacher,  "in  which  pupils 
govern  themselves  without  the  rigorous  dis- 
cipline found  in  other  systems."  Dr.  Harlan 
Updegraff,  of  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, says,  "The  pupils  of  the  Gary  schools 
seem  to  display  greater  self-control,  more 
self-respect,  and  more  thoughtful  considera- 
tion for  others  than  the  pupils  of  the  same 
age  in  most  of  the  better  school  systems  of 
to-day.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  comes 
largely  from  their  games  and  play,  but  a  part 
of  it  is  due  to  the  organization  of  the  school, 
and  to  the  practices  that  have  evolved  in 
its  administration.  No  child  in  Gary  has  a 
single  teacher  who  is  the  object  of  his  hero- 
worship,  upon  whom  he  tends  to  become 
more  or  less  dependent,  or  his  arch-enemy 
whom  he  detests  with  a  growing  hatred. 
The  Gary  pupil  has  several  teachers,  each  of 
whom  affects  him  in  a  different  way.  He 
becomes  more  conscious  of  his  individuality 
in  this  way,  and  learns  to  determine  for  him- 
self what  he  should  do  and  become.  Under 


142  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

such  a  system  the  influence  of  fellow  pupils 
becomes  relatively  stronger  than  in  the  ordi- 
nary school.  It  is,  therefore,  highly  impor- 
tant that  care  be  taken  to  further  the  devel- 
opment of  right  ideals  in  the  student  body. 
Organized  play  has  its  great  value  here.  Self- 
control,  cooperation,  courage,  self-respect, 
consideration  for  others,  and  a  sense  of  jus- 
tice have  been  developed  in  the  Gary  youth 
to  a  noticeable  degree,  largely,  it  seems  to 
me,  through  the  spirit  that  prevails  in  conse- 
quence of  the  administration  of  the  physical 
training  department.  Pupils  who  love  their 
school  better  than  the  streets,  who  have  a 
good  physical  tone  through  their  play  and 
physical  exercises,  and  who  have  good  self- 
control  and  independence  of  thought,  must 
naturally  have  a  more  favorable  attitude 
toward  school  work." 

Such  a  school  will  evidently  train  charac- 
ter as  a  by-product.  Self-activity,  self  or 
cooperative  instruction,  freedom  of  move- 
ment, 'camaraderie  with  teachers,  interesting 
and  varied  work,  study,  and  play,  a  sense  of 
what  the  school  is  doing,  social  introspection, 
—  all  combine  to  give  an  admirable  moral 


DISCIPLINE:  THE  NATURAL  SCHOOL    143 

training  and  to  produce  those  desirable  in- 
tellectual and  moral  qualities  that  the  world 
most  needs  to-day.  Not  obedience  but  self- 
reliance  does  such  a  school  cultivate. 


VIII 

CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS 

THE  criticisms  directed  against  the  Gary 
schools  by  superintendents  and  teachers  are 
criticisms  rather  of  the  whole  educational 
philosophy  behind  the  institution  than  ob- 
jections to  the  detailed  working-out  of  the 
philosophy.  Those  who  follow  Professor 
Dewey's  philosophy  find  in  the  Gary  schools 
—  as  Professor  Dewey  does  himself  —  the 
most  complete  and  admirable  application 
yet  attempted,  a  synthesis  of  the  best  aspects 
of  the  progressive  "schools  of  to-morrow." 

Concrete  criticisms  almost  all  concern  the 
alleged  additional  burdens  laid  upon  the  pub- 
lic, the  teacher,  and  the  pupil.  As  far  as  the 
public  goes,  the  fact  has  been  brought  out 
that  the  Gary  school  is  actually  a  cheaper 
kind  of  a  school  than  is  the  ordinary  public 
school,  even  when  run  in  the  most  economical 
and  scientific  manner.  The  charge  that  the 
Gary  schools  are  aided  by  private  corpora- 
tion enterprise  has  already  been  discussed. 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      145 

The  facts  are,  of  course,  that  the  schools  are 
all  supported  in  the  usual  way,  by  local  and 
state  appropriations.  The  city  of  Gary  is  not 
overtaxed  to  support  its  schools,  neither  does 
the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  pay 
more  than  its  proportionate  share  of  the  local 
taxes.  Nor  is  there  any  truth  in  the  impres- 
sion that  the  operation  of  the  Gary  plan  is 
confined  to  the  two  larger  school  plants  of 
the  city.  Although  these  two  plants  accom- 
modate three  quarters  of  the  children  of  the 
city,  the  Gary  plan  is  in  operation  in  all  the 
schools.  In  the  two  larger  schools,  Emerson 
and  Froebel,  the  academic  work  extends 
from  the  kindergarten  through  all  twelve 
grades.  In  the  other  schools  there  are  no 
high-school  students.  Four  of  the  other 
schools  have  eight  grades,  one  has  six,  one  is 
only  for  children  in  the  kindergarten  and  first 
two  grades.  These  schools  have  no  high- 
school  department  because  they  are  too 
small  and  the  schools  with  high-school  de- 
partments are  easily  accessible.  All  the 
schools  have  real  shopwork,  though  in  not 
all  of  them  is  the  apprentice-repair  feature 
possible.  All  the  schools  have  play  and  recre- 


146  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

ation  facilities.  The  smaller  schools  lack 
swimming-pools,  but  the  children  use  the 
well-equipped  Y.M.C.A.  All  the  schools 
have  "auditorium,"  science,  music,  and  ex- 
pression work.  All  the  schools  either  contain 
a  branch  of  the  public  library  or  else  use  the 
main  building  near  by.  All  the  schools  have 
an  eight-hour  day. 

The  charge  that  the  Gary  schools  are  too 
costly  for  imitation  cannot  be  sustained. 
We  have  seen  the  ingenious  efforts  of  the 
various  features  of  the  Gary  plans  to  reduce 
costs,  and  there  is  a  wealth  of  figures  to 
show  in  detail  the  greater  economy  of  the 
Gary  plan.  Superintendent  Wirt  has  made 
an  estimate  that  for  an  outlay  of  $6,000,000, 
"part-time"  could  be  wholly  abolished  in 
the  New  York  City  public  schools  by  an 
adoption  of  the  Gary  plan.  The  requisition 
of  the  board  of  superintendents  in  1914  was 
for  an  appropriation  of  $40,000,000,  simply 
for  new  buildings,  which  would  require  large 
sums  for  operation  and  maintenance  and 
lack  the  equipments  of  the  Gary  plan.  By 
the  multiple  use  of  facilities,  Superintendent 
Wirt  has  shown  that  the  number  of  school 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      147 

plants  in  New  York  could  actually  be  re- 
duced and  yet  the  part-time  of  132,000  chil- 
dren abolished.  At  the  same  time  that  this 
was  done,  the  school  day  would  actually  be 
increased  and  the  facilities  more  than  dou- 
bled. A  comparison  between  the  per-capita 
costs  of  instruction  in  the  Gary  and  New 
York  City  schools,  figured  in  average  daily 
attendance  for  1913-14,  has  been  made  by 
Mrs.  Alice  Barrows-Fernandez.  (The  Jeffer- 
son School  in  Gary  is  used  for  the  compari- 
son because  it  is  more  like  the  elementary 
schools  in  New  York  than  any  other  school 
in  Gary.) 

Pupil  per-capita  cost  for  Jefferson  School,  Gary, 

including  instruction  and  supplies $31.72 

Pupil  per-capita  cost  for  elementary  schools  in 
New  York  City,  including  instruction  and  sup- 
plies   40.24 

Pupil  per-capita  cost  for  the  two  Gary  schools 
which  have  kindergarten,  elementary  school,  and 
full  vocational  shops  — 

Emerson,  with  one  third  of  the  school  high- 
school  pupils 56.12 

Froebel,  with  twelve  per  cent  high-school 

pupils 32.85 

Pupil  per-capita  cost  in  New  York  City  — 

Elementary  schools 40.24 

High  schools 104.74 

Vocational  schools  for  boys 86.48 

Vocational  schools  for  girls 142.32 


148  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

"In  other  words,"  says  Mrs.  Barrows- 
Fernandez  in  her  report,  "in  the  Froebel 
School,  which  is  typical  of  the  average  school 
because  only  twelve  per  cent  of  its  pupils  are 
in  high  school,  twelve  years  in  elementary 
school  and  high  school  costs  the  city  for  one 
pupil  twelve  times  $32.85,  or  $394.20.  In  New 
York,  eight  years  in  elementary  school  costs 
the  city  for  one  student  eight  times  $40.24, 
or  $329.92,  and  four  years  in  high  school 
costs  four  times  $104.74,  or  $418.96;  or  for 
the  twelve  years,  $748.88.  In  Gary  for  the 
$394.20,  a  student  could  also  get  more  voca- 
tional training  than  is  given  in  a  separate 
trade  school.  The  New  York  boy  would  get 
none  of  this  in  the  elementary  school.  Even 
if  we  make  allowances  for  the  fact  that  the 
average  salary  of  teachers  in  elementary 
schools  and  high  schools  in  New  York  City 
is  one  third  higher  than  in  Gary,  it  is  obvious 
that  the  balance  of  economy  is  immensely 
in  favor  of  Gary  as  against  a  large  typical 
city  school  system  operated  on  the  conven- 
tional lines." 

It  seems  established  that  the  Gary  plan 
imposes  no  burdens  upon  the  public,  either 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      149 

in  Gary  or  in  the  communities  who  imitate 
the  plan,  but  rather  provides  increased  facili- 
ties at  reduced  cost,  besides  immense  facili- 
ties for  adults.  As  for  the  burden  upon  the 
teacher,  much  has  been  said  to  the  effect 
that  the  Gary  plan  is  unpopular  among 
teachers  because  of  the  extra  work  it  entails. 
In  connection  with  this  criticism,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  Gary  plan  postu- 
lates an  educational  philosophy  different 
from  that  of  the  ordinary  public  schools. 
Teachers  trained  in  schools  managed  with 
rigid  administrative  and  disciplinary  methods 
naturally  find  adjustment  difficult  in  a  sys- 
tem which  repeatedly  calls  upon  them  for 
initiative,  alters  their  relations  to  their  pu- 
pils, and  requires  a  more  practical  attitude 
of  "application"  toward  the  subject-matter 
of  instruction.  Experience  seems  to  show 
that  many  teachers  who  at  first  found  this 
adjustment  burdensome  have  later  come  to 
prefer  the  Gary  plan.  One  teacher  with  a 
fine  scholastic  training,  who  had  taught  for 
many  years  under  the  traditional  form  of 
organization,  is  quoted  by  Dean  Burris  as 
saying,  "I  did  not  like  it  when  I  came  here  a 


150  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

year  ago,  but  I  begin  to  like  it  and  see  what 
it  is  all  about,  so  I  am  going  to  stay." 

This  attitude  would  seem  to  be  typical 
of  the  intelligent  teacher  who  conies  to  ap- 
preciate what  it  is  all  about  and  the  valuable 
educational  advantages  which  the  system 
provides  for  the  teacher  herself.  And  al- 
though the  problem  of  securing  teachers 
has  been  somewhat  difficult  in  Gary,  owing 
to  the  newness  of  the  town,  the  large  fac- 
tory population,  and  the  relative  absence  of 
organized  social  life,  most  visitors  are  im- 
pressed by  the  unusual  personal  caliber  of  the 
head  teachers. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  where  the  Gary  plan 
involves  extra  burdens  for  teachers.  The 
teaching  period  is  only  four  hours  a  day, 
with  an  hour  for  "auditorium"  and  an  hour 
for  "application."  This  is  certainly  no  more 
exacting  than  the  five-hour  teaching  day  of 
the  ordinary  teacher.  All  "home  work"  and 
"paper  work,"  moreover,  is  supposed  to  be 
done  by  the  Gary  teacher  during  school 
hours,  so  that  her  school  day  is  over  when  the 
bell  rings.  This  makes  her  real  school  day 
actually  shorter  than  that  of  the  teacher  in 


i-    CCL1-EG»C 
CALIFORNIA 

CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS  - 

the  ordinary  school,  whose  afternoons  and 
evenings  must  often  be  spent  in  correcting 
papers,  etc.  The  Gary  teacher  is  supposed 
to  have  leisure  and  to  behave  in  school  and 
out  of  school  as  a  good  citizen  actively  in- 
terested in  the  community  welfare.  The 
Saturday  school  work,  for  which  the  teach- 
ers are  called  upon  in  turn,  is  paid  for  at  a 
rate  of  one  dollar  an  hour.  The  care  and 
work  involved  in  the  "register-teacher"  plan 
is  certainly  offset  by  its  valuable  educational 
value  for  the  teacher  herself. 

It  should  be  clear  that  the  various  features 
of  the  Gary  plan  tend  to  relieve  the  teacher 
of  burdens  and  particularly  of  nervous  strain. 
The  teaching  of  special  subjects  by  special 
teachers  relieves  the  grade  teacher  of  the 
obligation  of  teaching,  under  the  exacting 
direction  of  supervisors,  subjects  like  music 
and  drawing  with  which  she  may  be  little 
acquainted.  The  departmentalizing  of  sub- 
jects down  through  the  lower  grades  gives 
a  breadth  to  the  teachers'  work,  and  enables 
them  to  concentrate  on  the  subjects  which 
interest  them,  rather  than  diffuse  their  at- 
tention among  many.  The  absence  of  uni- 


152  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

form  standards,  the  absence  of  formal  term 
examinations  for  which  a  whole  class  must  be 
prepared,  the  promotion  of  children  by  sub- 
jects rather  than  whole  classes,  as  well  as  the 
division  of  grades  according  to  rate  of  prog- 
ress, —  all  this  makes  for  a  great  saving  hi 
the  teacher's  nervous  energy.  She  does  not 
have  the  strain  of  passing  her  whole  class 
in  every  subject,  of  finishing  her  course  on 
schedule  time,  of  cramming  for  examinations. 
She  has  some  freedom  hi  the  division  of  her 
tune  and  a  voice  in  the  making  of  the  course 
and  curriculum.  The  less  experienced  teacher 
has  in  her  classroom  the  assistance  and  advice 
of  the  senior  teacher,  as  well  as  of  the  head 
teacher  of  her  subjects  in  the  head  school. 
Teachers  are  not  rivals,  but  colleagues  as  in 
a  college  faculty. 

The  freer  methods  of  discipline  are  much 
to  the  teacher's  advantage.  When  the  ideal 
is  no  longer  to  keep  the  classroom  in  a  rigid 
military  silence,  a  large  part  of  the  teacher's 
energy  may  go  into  teaching  which  for- 
merly went  into  the  maintenance  of  disci- 
pline. Where  "interest"  and  "application" 
and  "learning  by  doing"  are  the  keynotes, 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      153 

and  where  every  one  —  teacher  and  pupil 
alike  —  is  at  some  time  in  the  course  both 
teaching  some  one  and  learning  from  some 
one,  the  teacher  is  no  longer  interested  in 
"making  the  child  obey,"  or  "commanding 
his  respect."  No  official  gulf  is  set  between 
teachers  and  pupils.  It  is  discipline  that 
wears  out  most  teachers,  —  and  children  too, 
—  and  a  greater  flexibility  makes  for  the 
lessening  of  nervous  strain  on  both. 

The  custom  of  "helpers  and  observers," 
the  emphasis  on  discussion  rather  than  for- 
mal recitation,  even  take  a  certain  amount 
of  actual  teaching  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
teachers.  The  teacher,  as  in  the  Montessori 
method,  becomes  the  guide  and  mentor  rather 
than  direct  preceptor.  She  is  no  longer  so 
much  concerned  with  predigesting  subject- 
matter  and  presenting  it  in  logical  form  to 
the  pupil,  only  to  draw  it  from  him  again  in 
recitation  and  written  examination.  She  is 
rather  concerned  with  directing  the  large 
amount  of  practical  work  which  the  Gary 
child  does  in  every  course,  and  in  devising 
methods  of  "application,"  or  in  turning  the 
work  into  practical  value  for  the  school  com- 


154  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

munity.  Those  classes  where  the  "helper 
and  observer"  system  obtains  are,  to  a  large 
degree,  self-instructing.  The  older  child  tells 
the  younger  what  he  is  doing  in  shop  or  lab- 
oratory, etc.,  and  when  the  younger  child 
comes  to  take  up  the  work,  he  is  already 
familiar  with  materials  and  apparatus  and  the 
significance  of  the  course.  Raw  new  classes 
thus  do  not  have  to  be  constantly  broken  in 
by  the  teacher.  This  means  a  very  large  sav- 
ing of  labor  for  the  teacher,  while  it  makes 
for  the  more  thorough  understanding  on  the 
part  of  the  pupil.  In  the  physical  education 
work  and  in  the  organized  play,  the  older  pu- 
pils are  enlisted  as  assistants  to  the  teachers. 
Superintendent  Wirt's  new  plans  involve  the 
employment  throughout  the  different  de- 
partments as  teachers'  assistants  of  a  class 
of  older  pupils,  selected  for  their  interest 
and  ability.  Such  work  not  only  gives  the 
student  the  best  possible  training  for  devel- 
oping leadership,  initiative,  and  the  ability 
to  assume  responsibility,  but  it  also  relieves 
the  teachers  and  makes  possible  many  small 
classes  without  extra  teachers  and  without 
extra  rooms. 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      155 

From  the  teachers'  point  of  view,  then, 
the  numerous  ways  in  which  the  Gary  plan 
relieves  the  nervous  strain  and  actual  respon- 
sibility of  teaching,  and  removes  the  pres- 
sure of  outside  work,  more  than  compensate 
for  the  slightly  longer  actual  time  during 
which  the  teacher  must  be  in  the  school 
plant.  And  since  this  longer  time  means 
increased  salary,  it  is  clear  that  the  teacher 
under  the  Gary  plan  is  the  gainer  in  every 
direction. 

The  criticisms  of  the  Gary  plan  on  the 
ground  that  the  long  school  day  and  varied 
curriculum  overload  the  pupil  can  scarcely 
be  sustained  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
"school  day"  is  not  merely  a  lengthening  of 
the  ordinary  public  school  day,  but  an  ab- 
sorbing, in  healthful  activities  of  play,  exer- 
cise and  manual  work,  of  time  which  would 
otherwise  be  spent  in  demoralizing  street 
and  alley  or  in  idleness  at  home.  We  have 
seen  that  this  additional  activity  is  not 
gained  at  the  expense  of  the  academic 
studies,  but  comes  from  giving  the  children 
interesting  things  to  do  in  the  surplus  hours 
in  which  they  are  usually  left  to  take  care  of 


156  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

themselves.  The  freedom  of  the  Gary  schools, 
and  the  constant  passing  back  and  forth  be- 
tween school  and  home,  church,  etc.,  does 
not  seem  to  make  for  truancy.  The  percent- 
age of  attendance  in  November,  1914,  was 
for  boys  92.9,  for  girls,  91.6,  —  a  remarkable 
record  when  it  is  considered  that  boy  tru- 
ancy in  most  city  schools  is  much  the  greater. 
For  the  year  1913-14  the  percentage  of  at- 
tendance was  for  boys  89.5,  for  girls,  89.2. 

The  criticism  of  the  Gary  school  on  the 
ground  that  the  shopwork  either  involves 
the  risk  of  exploiting  the  pupil,  or  else  intro- 
duces him  to  manual  activity  at  too  early  an 
age,  ignores  the  fact  that  the  manual  work 
is  really  unspecialized  and  is  introduced  so 
gradually  into  the  child's  life  that  it  is 
scarcely  felt  as  work.  "Play"  and  "work" 
are  merged  in  "interesting  activity,"  and 
almost  unconsciously  the  child  finds  himself 
absorbed  in  work  which  may  be  his  vocation 
later  on.  Whether  it  is  to  be  his  vocation  or 
not,  the  Gary  school  believes  that  such  work 
is  a  good  thing  in  the  education  of  all  chil- 
dren. Many  educators  believe  that  the  novel 
form  of  shopwork  in  the  Gary  school  of- 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS       157 

fers  a  solution  for  the  problems  of  industrial 
training.  There  is  great  risk,  in  schools 
where  shopwork  is  introduced  apart  from  the 
academic  work,  as  in  special  technical  high 
schools,  of  an  undemocratic  and  invidious 
distinction  between  the  manual  worker  and 
the  brain  worker.  In  plans  of  organization, 
such  as  the  Ettinger  plan  in  New  York  City, 
with  a  preliminary  course  of  "pre  vocational 
training,"  in  which  the  prospective  industrial 
pupil  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  dis- 
covers by  hasty  experimentation  which  trade 
his  aptitudes  fit  him  to  pursue,  there  is  great 
danger  that  the  vocational  work  will  be  left 
unassimilated  to  the  rest  of  the  school  work 
and  the  child  trained  into  a  narrow  specialist. 
Such  "vocational  training"  deserves  all  the 
criticism  that  has  been  directed  against  it  by 
the  opponents  of  a  too  "utilitarian"  educa- 
tion. The  Gary  type  of  vocational  training 
keeps  the  industrial  work  constantly  in  touch 
with  the  other  activities,  and  makes  it  a 
really  "cultural"  branch  of  the  school  com- 
munity work.  And  because  the  children  lay 
their  foundations  of  skill  and  interest  so 
early  and  work  at  real  work  under  real  work- 


158  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

men,  their  training  from  a  practical  point  of 
view  is  as  good  as,  if  not  better  than,  the 
special  trade  school  is  likely  to  give  them. 
More  shops  are  actually  supported  in  the 
Gary  school  than  even  the  most  elaborate 
special  trade  school  can  afford  to  provide. 
The  correlation  of  day  courses  with  evening 
continuation  courses,  the  great  attention  to 
science,  the  emphasis  on  the  social  and  com- 
munal bearing  of  all  activities,  —  all  this 
means  a  higher  type  of  vocational  training 
than  has  been  worked  out  generally  in  the 
public  school.  If  he  is  intelligent,  he  will  be 
better  qualified  for  skilled  work  than  the 
more  narrowly  trained  worker.  "This  is  the 
age,"  says  Superintendent  Wirt,  "of  the 
engineer,  of  machinery,  and  of  big  business. 
The  school  business  enterprises  offer  a  type 
of  industrial  and  commercial  education  facili- 
ties .  .  .  adapted  to  modern  industry  and 
business.  There  are  big  business  problems 
and  machinery  problems  in  the  school." 
These  problems  evolved  in  the  life  of  a  school 
community  give  an  education,  he  holds, 
superior  to  what  can  be  given  even  in  schools 
narrowly  devoted  to  shop-training.  And  it 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      159 

can  give  the  training  in  small  groups  or  even 
to  individuals,  where  the  special  school  has 
to  give  instruction  in  large  classes  to  make  it 
pay  at  all.  As  Mrs.  Barrows-Fernandez  puts 
it,  "If  you  believe  that  vocational  education 
is  confined  to  specific  training  for  a  trade, 
and  that  this  must  be  carried  on  in  a  separate 
trade  school,  and  that  general  education  has 
no  relation  to  it  except  as  it  may  add  a  fringe 
of  culture,  then  you  will  think  that  there  is 
no  vocational  education  in  Gary.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  if  you  belong  to  the  group 
that  believes  that  what  children  under  six- 
teen need  in  the  way  of  vocational  work  is 
not  specialized  trade  training  on  top  of  an 
inadequate  elementary-school  education,  but 
fundamental  industrial  training  closely  re- 
lated to  the  science  and  academic  work,  and 
made  real  and  natural  because  it  is  one  of  the 
many  activities  of  the  whole  school,  —  then 
you  will  come  away  from  Gary  feeling  that 
the  vocational  work  there  represents  the 
soundest  point  of  view  and  the  best  practical 
accomplishment  in  vocational  work  for  chil- 
dren under  sixteen  that  can  be  found  any- 
where in  the  country." 


160  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

In  New  York  City,  where  an  extended 
experimentation  is  being  carried  on  with  the 
Gary  plan,  considerable  controversy  is  said 
to  have  arisen  over  the  provision  of  the  Gary 
scheme  which  permits  outside  institutions, 
including  churches,  to  cooperate  with  the 
school  and  take  children  for  a  few  hours  a 
week  for  any  special  work,  amusement,  or 
instruction  which  the  schools  cannot  give. 
The  fear  was  expressed  there  that  this  pro- 
vision would  mean  the  entering  wedge  of 
religion  into  the  public  school. 

As  outlined  by  Mr.  Wirt,  however,  the 
Gary  plan  holds  no  brief  for  religious  instruc- 
tion. It  has  no  concern  with  any  church 
activity  as  such.  What  it  tries  to  do  is  to 
coordinate  the  community  child-welfare  agen- 
cies with  the  school.  The  lengthening  of 
the  school  day  absorbs  an  hour  which  would 
otherwise  be  spent  by  the  city  child  in  the 
street,  or  at  home,  church,  or  settlement. 
All  the  Gary  school  does  is  to  organize  and 
systematize  this  hour.  It  may  be  spent  by 
the  child  either  in  play  or  auditorium  at  the 
school,  or  in  any  outside  activity  which  pro- 
vides wholesome  activities  for  children.  The 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      161 

object  is  to  coordinate  the  community  oppor- 
tunities so  that  they  may  function  regularly 
and  vitally  instead  of  spasmodically  as  at 
present.  The  school  gives  to  all  the  agencies 
which  pretend  to  be  interested  in  the  child's 
welfare  a  chance  to  spend  themselves  effec- 
tively. It  brings  up  to  the  level  of  public 
discussion,  for  the  first  time,  the  question 
what  sort  of  home,  church,  and  neighborhood 
activities  are  good  for  children. 

Into  this  scheme  the  church  enters  merely 
as  a  community  institution.  As  long  as  any 
considerable  number  of  the  parents  of  the 
children  in  a  school  believe  that  religious 
instruction  is  valuable,  no  public  school 
which  attempts  to  be  really  public  can  refuse 
to  release  children  for  this  purpose,  just  as  it 
releases  them  for  playgrounds,  settlements, 
libraries,  home  music,  or  other  instruction. 
This  outside  tune  is  not  taken  from  study. 
Nor  are  the  children  turned  out  into  the 
streets  to  be  taken  care  of  by  the  churches 
and  other  institutions.  No  child  is  excused 
unless  the  parents  make  formal  application. 
If  the  parents  do  not  do  this,  the  child  stays 
at  the  school  for  the  full  seven  or  eight  hours 


162  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

of  work,  study,  and  play.  The  burden  of 
responsibility  rests  entirely  upon  the  parents 
and  the  churches.  The  teachers  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  matter,  either  in  segregating 
the  children  or  seeing  where  they  go.  There 
seems  to  be  little  fear  that  the  practice  will 
not  conform  to  the  theory.  Mr.  Wirt  tells 
us  that  his  work-study-and-play  school  had 
been  functioning  for  twelve  years  in  Bluffton 
and  Gary  before  any  religious  organization 
took  advantage  of  this  provision.  The  idea 
that  the  opportunity  would  unduly  increase 
religious  influence  hi  the  schools  seems  to  be 
groundless.  In  the  Jefferson  School  in  Gary, 
which  has  been  longest  in  operation  under 
the  Wirt  plan,  and  where  the  fullest  efforts 
have  been  made  by  all  the  sects  and  religions 
of  the  town  to  provide  this  supplementary 
instruction,  scarcely  half  the  children  in  the 
spring  of  1915  were  going  out  to  any  sort  of 
religious  training  whatever.  And  in  one  of 
the  Wirt  schools  in  New  York,  where  unusual 
efforts  have  been  made  by  some  of  the 
churches  to  meet  the  new  plan,  not  even  half 
of  the  children  are  released  for  this  purpose. 
In  another  Wirt  school  in  New  York,  none 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      163 

of  the  children  are  released,  because  there 
is  no  demand  for  it  on  the  part  of  the  pa- 
rents. 

What  the  Gary  plan  seems  to  do  is  not  to 
bring  religion  into  the  schools,  but  for  the 
first  tune  to  take  it  out  of  the  schools.  The 
relations  now  between  church  and  school  are 
hidden.  The  Gary  plan  brings  them  out  into 
the  open.  The  establishment  of  a  fair,  free, 
and  open  relation  between  the  school  and 
all  other  community  institutions  is  of  utmost 
importance.  No  institution  which  has  any- 
thing valuable  to  offer  the  child  will  lose  by 
such  a  relation.  No  outside  power  can  domi- 
nate or  even  partially  control  a  public  school 
which  has  established  it. 

We  may  sum  up  the  Gary  school,  then,  as 
primarily  a  school  community  for  children  of 
all  ages  between  nursery  and  college,  providing 
wholesome  activities  under  a  fourfold  division 
of  work,  study,  play,  and  expression.  It  aims 
to  provide  the  best  possible  environment  for  the 
growing  child  throughout  the  course  of  a  full 
eight-hour  day.  The  school  community,  replac- 
ing the  old-time  education  of  household  and 


164  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

school,  aims  to  be  as  self-sustaining  as  possible, 
all  activities  contributing  to  the  welfare  of  the 
school  community  life.  By  the  multiple  use  of 
school  facilities,  on  the  plan  of  public-service 
principles,  such  a  school  may  be  provided  at 
no  more  expense  than  that  of  the  ordinary  pub- 
lic school.  The  economics  effected  by  this  mul- 
tiple use  enable  the  Gary  school  to  provide 
recreational  and  educational  facilities  for  adults 
as  well  as  children  all  the  year  round,  as  well  as 
to  pay  better  salaries  to  teachers,  and  completely 
solve  "part-time  problems.'*  It  makes  the 
school  the  cultural  center  of  a  community  with 
parks,  libraries,  and  museums  functioning  as 
contributory  to  the  school,  as  well  as  all  other 
activities  which  provide  wholesome  interests  for 
children.  It  makes  the  school,  for  the  first  time, 
a  genuine  "social  center,"  and  a  genuinely 
"public  school"  in  a  comprehensive  sense 
scarcely  realized  hitherto. 

No  better  evaluation  of  the  Gary  plan 
has  been  made  than  that  by  William  Paxton 
Burris,  Dean  of  the  College  for  Teachers, 
University  of  Cincinnati,  in  the  Bulletin  of 
the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  1914, 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      165 

no.  18.  In  his  opinion  the  school  system  at 
Gary  provides:  — 

"1.  For  the  better  use  of  school-buildings 
day  and  evening,  including  Saturdays,  the 
year  round,  making  it  possible  to  save  large 
sums  of  money  expended  for  this  purpose." 

This  multiple  use  of  school  plants,  which 
secures  greatly  increased  facilities  at  greatly 
reduced  cost,  while  it  permits  the  giving  of 
full-tune  instruction  to  all  the  children  of 
even  the  congested  school  districts,  is  the  as- 
pect which  has  appealed  most  generally  to 
educators  outside  of  Gary.  For  administra- 
tors confronted  with  problems  of  part-time, 
it  makes  an  examination  of  the  Wirt  plan 
almost  essential.  No  educationist  can  afford 
to  ignore  a  plan  which,  in  mere  details  of  me- 
chanical administration,  provides  not  only  a 
full-time  program,  but  actually  a  longer 
school  day,  for  all  the  children  in  the  city 
school  —  something  hitherto  considered  im- 
possible in  the  larger  school  systems.  The 
Gary  plan  seems  to  provide  an  easy  solution 
for  these  difficulties  which  grow  progressively 
worse  in  the  large  city  with  every  year. 

"2.  The  possibility  of  a  better  division  of 


166  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

time  between  the  old  and  the  new  studies, 
the  *  regular  studies*  and  'special  activities.'  " 
The  Gary  plan  provides  not  only  an  en- 
riched curriculum,  but  an  unusually  favor- 
able and  harmonious  balance  between  the 
various  activities.  The  larger  emphasis  on 
science  and  manual  work  has  not  made  the 
school  ultra-utilitarian  in  its  purpose.  The 
Gary  schools  have  not  been  "turned  into 
mills  and  factories,"  as  certain  educators  have 
feared.  For  many  visitors,  the  Gary  school 
is  a  living  refutation  of  the  idea  that  the  use- 
ful and  the  beautiful  are  opposed.  The  new 
school  plants,  such  as  the  Emerson  and  Froe- 
bel,  are  spacious  and  dignified  buildings, 
with  many  touches  of  thoughtful  taste  that 
one  usually  associates  only  with  the  high 
schools  of  exceptionally  wealthy  and  culti- 
vated suburban  communities.  The  presence 
of  pictures,  the  cultivation  of  music,  the  em- 
phasis on  expression,  the  teaching  of  litera- 
ture, the  systematic  use  of  the  public  library, 
indicate  a  determined  effort  to  bring  the  cul- 
tural aspects  of  education  to  the  front,  and 
make  them  as  real  a  part  of  the  school  life  as 
the  more  striking  special  activities.  The 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      167 

"application"  work  involves  constant  care 
and  interest  in  the  enhancement  of  the  beauty 
of  the  school  plant.  The  actual  charm  of  the 
school  life  in  Gary  —  the  conservatories  and 
gardens,  the  play,  the  freedom  of  the  chil- 
dren, the  dramatic  expression,  the  absence 
of  strain  and  confusion,  the  happiness  of  the 
children  —  is  testified  to  by  most  visitors. 
A  very  beautiful  school  life  seems  to  be  lived, 
paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  where  every 
activity  is  motivated  by  application  and 
expression,  where  the  learning  is  by  doing 
and  not  by  mere  studying. 

"3.  Greater  flexibility  in  adapting  studies 
to  exceptional  children  of  all  kinds,  thereby 
diminishing  the  necessity  of  special  schools." 

The  Gary  plan  provides  a  school  which  is 
adapted  to  almost  every  kind  of  a  child.  It 
does  not  try  to  adapt  the  child  to  the  school, 
casting  off  automatically  those  who  do  not 
fit.  But  it  adapts  the  school  to  the  very  un- 
equal needs  and  capacities  of  the  children. 
Such  a  school  seems  to  be  one  where  capa- 
cities will  be  developed  wherever  there  are 
capacities,  a  school  where  something  like 
equal  educational  opportunity  can  be  given, 


168  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

as  it  cannot  be  in  the  ordinary  public  school. 
It  can  almost  be  said  that  the  only  reason 
for  keeping  a  child  home  from  the  Gary 
school  would  be  a  case  of  contagious  disease. 
If  the  child  is  physically  weak,  so  that  he 
cannot  undertake  all  the  work,  he  may  take 
what  he  can  and  use  the  other  facilities  of 
the  school  as  one  would  use  a  sanitarium  for 
regaining  health.  The  daily  program  permits 
a  child  to  spend  all  his  time  in  the  special  ac- 
tivities if  this  is  best  for  him.  He  may  spend 
his  time  resting  in  the  open  air,  or  in  super- 
vised play  until  he  gains  strength  to  do  the 
regular  work.  The  defective  child  may  work 
at  what  he  can  in  the  way  of  manual  activ- 
ity. And,  the  retarded  child  may  take  such 
activities  as  will  awaken  his  interest,  and 
gradually  bring  him  up  to  the  level  of  his 
grade.  An  elementary  school  system  like  this 
has  no  need  for  the  expensive  special  open-air 
schools,  classes  for  defectives,  etc.,  special 
trade  schools  or  commercial  schools.  In  the 
organized  life  of  the  complete  school  com- 
munity, the  child  may  find  approximately 
what  he  needs. 

"4.  The  possibility  of  more  expert  teach- 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      169 

ing  through  the  extension  of  the  departmental 
plan  of  organization." 

"5.  The  better  use  of  playtime,  thereby 
preventing  influences  which  undo  the  work 
of  the  schools." 

"6.  More  realism  in  vocational  and  in- 
dustrial work,  by  placing  it  under  the  direc- 
tion of  expert  workmen  from  the  ranks  of 
laboring  men,  selected  for  their  personal 
qualities  and  teaching  ability  as  well  as  their 
skill  in  the  trade  industries." 

The  organization  of  the  industrial  and 
other  vocational  work  offers  many  practical 
advantages  to  the  young  worker.  Not  only 
does  he  have  the  evening  continuation  courses 
and  the  privilege  of  coming  back  to  the  school 
shops  in  the  daytime  when  unemployed, 
but  the  most  practical  foundation  is  laid  for 
the  development  of  cooperative  courses  be- 
tween school  and  factory  on  the  lines  of  the 
well-known  Fitchburg  plan.  The  flexibility 
of  administration  and  curriculum  in  the  Gary 
school  allows  him  to  attend  the  academic 
class  during  slack  hours,  or  to  divide  the  job 
and  the  school  with  another  student.  The 
Gary  school  even  offers  to  provide  special 


170  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

instruction  for  part-time  students  for  any 
desired  number  of  hours  a  week,  or  allows 
them  to  work  on  their  own  initiative.  In 
1914  in  Gary  there  were  said  to  be  about  one 
hundred  part-time  students.  The  plan  of 
the  all-year  school  also  offers  peculiar  oppor- 
tunities to  the  young  worker.  The  oppor- 
tunity of  finding  employment  is  increased 
fourfold.  For  instead  of  throwing  all  the 
pupils  on  the  market  to  find  jobs  at  the  same 
time,  one  quarter  of  those  who  needed  work 
would  be  available  throughout  the  year. 
Instead  of  one  continuous  apprentice  in  an 
industry  or  trade,  therefore,  four  pupils  could 
take  his  place  in  alternation.  Instead  of  one 
young  workman  spending  all  his  time  at  work 
and  none  at  school,  four  would  be  getting  a 
full  schooling  of  thirty-six  weeks  in  the  year, 
and  twelve  weeks  of  practical  apprentice 
training  in  the  factory.  Thus  the  Gary  plan 
makes  it  easy  for  the  young  worker  to  get 
the  maximum  benefit  of  the  modern  school 
and  his  apprenticeship  at  the  same  time. 

A  word  should  be  said  about  the  value  of 
the  vocational  industrial  training  that  the 
Gary  school  gives,  from  the  point  of  view  of 


o    is 

33      o 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      171 

preparation  for  efficiency  in  the  industrial 
world.  The  organization  of  the  manual  work 
as  a  part  of  the  regular  curriculum  prevents 
the  narrow  specialization  of  the  trade  school. 
It  tends  to  turn  the  young  worker  out,  not  as 
a  part  of  the  industrial  machine  fitted  to  do 
only  one  thing,  but  equipped  to  meet  a  dy- 
namic, rapidly  changing  industrial  world 
which  demands  above  all  things  versatility, 
and  which  scraps  methods  and  machines  as 
ruthlessly  as  it  does  men.  Only  the  man  of 
rounded  training  and  resourcefulness  who  can 
turn  his  hand  quickly  to  a  variety  of  occu- 
pations has  a  chance  to-day  to  rise  above  the 
mass.  The  tendency  of  the  old  public  school, 
in  spite  of  its  fancied  "liberal"  curriculum, 
was  to  turn  out  only  very  low-grade  special- 
ists in  book-learning.  The  student  who  comes 
from  the  well-rounded  curriculum  of  the  Gary 
school  into  the  industrial  world  is  bound  to 
be  more  alert,  more  interested  in,  and  more 
cognizant  of,  what  he  is  doing.  The  Gary 
school  seems  to  be  making  an  effort  to  pro- 
duce the  type  of  mind  perhaps  the  most 
needed  to-day,  that  of  the  versatile  engineer, 
the  mind  that  adapts  and  masters  mechan- 


172  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

ism.  This  exactness,  resourcefulness,  inven- 
tiveness, pragmatic  judgment  of  a  machine 
by  its  product,  the  sense  of  machinery  as  a 
means  not  an  end  in  itself,  —  these  qualities 
of  mind  which  come  from  an  emphasis  on 
applied  science  are  the  qualities  which  soci- 
ety demands  in  almost  every  industry,  pro- 
fession, and  trade.  The  Gary  school  tends  to 
cultivate  this  type  of  intelligence.  For  this 
type  of  mind,  "culture"  would  not  be  a  fringe, 
but  a  more  or  less  integral  part  of  life,  because 
it  had  been  woven  in  from  the  earliest  years 
in  the  school  community.  On  the  other  hand, 
skilled  labor  would  not  seem  degrading  or  of 
lower  value,  for  it  too  would  have  had  its 
equal  part  in  the  school  life. 

"7.  Better  facilities  for  the  promotion  of 
the  health  of  children." 

The  large  amount  of  play,  the  spacious 
and  sanitary  school  plants,  the  care  of  the 
special  school  physicians  and  school  nurses 
who  devote  their  whole  time  to  the  purpose, 
insure  the  needed  attention  to  the  physical 
well-being  of  the  children. 

"8.  The  possibility  of  having  pupils  do 
work  in  more  than  one  grade  and  of  pro- 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS     173 

moling  them  by  subjects  instead  of  by 
grades." 

"9.  The  possibility  of  having  pupils  help 
each  other." 

The  "helper  and  observer"  system,  ap- 
plied not  only  in  the  relations  between  chil- 
dren, but  between  teachers,  and  between 
teachers  inside  the  school  and  visitors,  is  one 
of  the  most  valuable  features  of  the  Gary 
plan.  It  entirely  alters  the  usual  relations, 
making  for  a  cooperative  instead  of  a  com- 
petitive spirit  in  work,  and  facilitating  enor- 
mously the  work  of  both  pupils  and  teachers. 
Children  learn  by  watching  and  asking  ques- 
tions —  "picking  up"  —  in  the  most  natural 
way  in  the  world,  in  contrast  to  the  formal 
and  stilted  ways  of  the  traditional  classroom 
work. 

"10.  An  organization  which  prevents  a 
chasm  between  the  elementary  and  high 
school,  and  prevents  dropping  out  of  school 
at  critical  periods  in  the  lives  of  pupils  by 
the  introduction,  at  such  times,  of  subjects 
which  appeal  to  awakening  interests  not  satis- 
fied by  a  continuous  and  exclusive  devotion 
to  the  'common  branches.'  " 


174  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

The  Gary  plan,  which  includes  all  the 
grades  in  one  school  plant  wherever  possible, 
prevents  these  chasms  more  successfully 
than  even  such  schemes  as  the  junior  high 
school  which  are  being  extensively  experi- 
mented with  elsewhere.  The  Gary  school  has 
an  extraordinary  hold  on  its  pupils.  There 
is  no  incentive  for  leaving  school,  since  the 
school  provides  for  the  needs  of  the  most 
diversely  equipped  children,  gives  them  the 
practical  vocational  training  they  may  want, 
and  even  allows  their  working  part-time  while 
continuing  with  the  school.  All  those  prob- 
lems of  "pupil-mortality,"  whereby  half  the 
children  in  our  public  schools  are  said  never 
to  pass  beyond  the  sixth  grade,  are  almost 
automatically  avoided  in  a  school  which  de- 
liberately sets  itself  to  meeting  the  individual 
child's  needs.  The  success  of  the  Gary  school 
in  holding  its  pupils  is  indicated  in  the  fact 
that,  in  spite  of  the  short  time  the  Gary 
schools  have  been  in  existence,  the  propor- 
tion of  high-school  pupils  in  Gary  is  said  to  be 
almost  twice  as  large  as  that  in  the  schools  of 
New  York  City. 

"11.  A  saving  in  the  cost  of  instruction  by 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS     175 

reducing  overhead  charges  for  supervisors, 
making  it  possible  to  pay  better  salaries  or 
reduce  the  number  of  pupils  per  teacher,  or 
both." 

"12.  A  plan  which  brings  together,  in  a 
unitary  way,  with  economy  and  efficiency  in 
management,  the  other  recreational  and  edu- 
cational agencies  of  the  city." 

These  evaluations  of  Dean  Burris's  sum  up 
the  various  aspects  of  the  Gary  plan  as  it 
appeals  to  practical  educators.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  Gary  school  represents 
not  a  rigid  system,  or  a  static  and  completed 
mechanism.  Its  chief  value  is  that  it  pro- 
vides a  flexible  program  and  facility  for 
change  and  development.  Any  examples  of 
details  in  the  curricula  or  details  of  adminis- 
tration can  only  be  tentative,  for  it  is  an 
experimental  school,  where  every  one  is  con- 
stantly studying  and  learning.  It  is  a  grow- 
ing organism.  The  only  limit  to  its  growth 
seems  to  lie  in  the  imagination  of  teachers 
and  pupils.  Even  when  it  starts  with  an  ad- 
mirable equipment,  its  life  is  only  begun.  It 
is  the  use  of  the  equipment,  the  constant 
appeal  to  the  imagination  and  to  expression 


176  THE  GARY  SCHOOLS 

that  is  the  real  education*  In  such  a  school, 
the  cultivation  of  resource  may  go  on  in- 
definitely. Such  a  school  provides  that  "em- 
bryonic community  life"  which  Professor 
Dewey  expresses  as  his  ideal  of  a  school, 
where  in  actual  work  the  child  senses  the 
occupations  and  interests  of  the  larger  world 
into  which  he  is  some  time  actively  to 
enter. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  the  Gary  school 
has  national  significance  because  it  is  the 
first  public  school  system  in  successful  es- 
tablished operation  which  has  been  able  to 
solve  the  pressing  and  apparently  insoluble 
problems  of  the  city  school;  which  has  kept 
pace  with  changing  industrial  and  social  con- 
ditions, and  adapts  the  school  to  every  kind 
of  a  child;  which  synthesizes  the  best  educa- 
tional endeavors  of  the  day,  and  provides 
the  facilities  which  educators  have  vainly 
sought  to  provide  for  all  the  children,  but 
have  only  succeeded  in  providing  at  great 
expense  for  the  more  advanced  and  older 
pupils  of  the  community;  which  marks  a  dis- 
tinct advance  in  democratic  education;  which 
realizes  the  ideal  of  a  truly  public  school,  in 


CRITICISMS  AND  EVALUATIONS      177 

providing  for  all  the  people  all  of  the  time; 
and,  which,  in  its  simple  organization  and 
ingenious  financial  economies,  furnishes  a 
practical  working-model  for  imitation  and 
adaptation  in  other  communities,  large  and 
small. 


DISTRIBUTION   OF  EXPENDITURES 

August  1, 1914  —  July  31,  1915 

Schools  of  Gary,  Indiana 

REGULAR  SCHOOL  (TEN  MONTHS,  FIVE  DAYS 
PER  WEEK,  EIGHT-HOUR  DAY) 


LARGEST  THBEB 
SCHOOLS  WITH  NO.  OF 
PUPILS 

Emerson 
School 
(895) 

froebel 
(1847) 

Jefferson 
(764) 

All 
schools 
(4789) 

Instruction  — 
Salaries  of  supervis- 
ors and  principals, 
and  miscellaneous 
Salaries  of  teachers 
Supplies  

$2,750.19 
27,954.77 
854.66 

$4,189.95 
46,373.36 
758.58 

$2,016.60 
16,713.70 
367.00 

$13,745.75 
113,533.24 
2  66009 

Total  cost  of  in- 
struction   

Operation  and  main- 
tenance — 
Janitors'  wages  
Fuel,    water,    light, 
supplies  

$31,559.62 

$3,908.80 
4,815.03 

151,321.89 

$4,936.02 
6,234.70 

$19,097.30 

$1,131.11 
1,205.11 

$129,939.08 

$12,203.15 
13  79949 

Total  cost  of  op- 
eration   

$8,723.83 

$10,170.72 

$2,336.22 

$26002  62 

Maintenance  — 

7,420.40 

6,050.67 

7,418.36* 

26,674.62 

»  Includes  new  heating  plant. 

SATURDAY  SCHOOL  (TEN  MONTHS,  EIGHT-HOUR 
DAY) 


SCHOOLS 

Emerson 

Froebel 

Jefferson 

All 
schools 

Instruction  

$1,782  20 

$2,721.57 

$860  28 

$690962 

Operation  

1,713.63 

1,690.83 

344.65 

433231 

180 


APPENDIX 


SUMMER  SCHOOL  (TWO  MONTHS) 


SCHOOLS 

Emerson 

Froebel 

Jefferton 

All 
schools 

Instruction  — 
Salaries  of  supervis- 
ors and  principals 
Salaries  of  teachers. 
Supplies  

$831.56 
4,213.63 
38.61 

$1,349.65 
3,678.08 
33.30 

$543.75 
779.58 
3050 

$3,375.20 
10,602.91 
11431 

Total  cost  of  in- 
struction   

$6,083.80 

$5,061.03 

£1,353.83 

$14092.42 

Operation  — 
Janitors'  wages  

$1,317.98 

$1,542.37 

$251.03 

$3,424.34 

Fuel,  etc  

794.37 

1,30842 

131  25 

2  421  96 

Total  cost  of  op- 
eration   

{2,112.35 

$2,850.79 

$38228 

$684629 

Maintenance  •••••••• 

1  149.41 

689.79 

1  68255 

4,16690 

SUNDAY    SCHOOL    (TWO   PLANTS.    FOUR   HOURS 
WEEKLY) 


SCHOOLS 

Emerson 

Froebel 

Ml 
schools 

Salaries  of 
Operation  . 

teachers  

$103.00 
954.56 

$128.00 
847.60 

$231.00 
1,802.16 

EVENING  SCHOOL  (FIVE  EVENINGS  WEEKLY  OF 
TWO  HOURS  EACH,  NINE  MONTHS  OF  SCHOOL) 


SCHOOLS 

Emerson 

Froebel 

AU 
schools 

Salaries  of  supervisors  and  princi- 

$1  091  07 

$1,731  4S 

$3  81324 

Salaries  of  teachers  

5,112.89 

5,S2S  (K3 

13,675.73 

SuDolies  .  .  . 

34054 

471  68 

1,04284 

Total  cost  of  instruction  .... 
Operation  

$6,544.50 
2  28391 

$8,031.13 
239268 

818,531.81 
687256 

APPENDIX 


181 


PUPIL  PER-CAPITA  YEAR  (TWELVE  MONTHS; 
ALL  ACTIVITIES) 


SCHOOLS 

Emerson 

Froebel 

Jefferson 

All 
schools 

Per-capita  cost  for 
Instruction  

$35  26 

$2779 

$25  00 

$27  13 

Operation  

9  75 

5  50 

3  06 

5  43 

Maintenance  

829 

327 

9  71 

5  55 

Current  cost,  total 

Permanent  improve- 
ments   

$53.30 
11.43 

$36.56 
7  81 

$37.77 
14.43 

$38.11 
1088 

Grand  total  

$64  73 

$44  37 

$52  20 

$48  99 

General  control  
Other  payments  
Auxiliary  agency.  .  .  . 

8.54 
7.76 
1.02 

ENROLLMENT 


Day  school 

Enroll- 
ment 

Average 
daily 
attendance 

No.  of 
teachers 

Average 
salary 

Enroll- 
ment 
per 
teacher 

Emerson  

895 

76980 

81 

$915  78 

2766 

Froebel  

1,847 

1  591  06 

67 

813  56 

31  50 

Jefferson  

764 

661  70 

22 

759  71 

33  50 

All  schools  

4  789 

4043  98 

142 

802  59 

33  70 

Summer  schools 
Evening  schools 

1,700 
182,348* 

*  Number  of  student  hours 


TOTAL  EXPENDITURES  —  TWELVE  MONTHS  — 
ALL  ACTIVITIES  (REGULAR,  SATURDAY,  SUN- 
DAY, SUMMER,  EVENING  SCHOOLS 

Instruction $169,703.83 

Operation 43,855.93 

Maintenance 30,740.52 

Total  current  cost 244,300.28 

Total  expenditures $362,325.73 


n 

SUPERINTENDENT  WIRT'S  REPORT 

ON   THE 

REORGANIZATION  OF  THE  BRONX  SCHOOLS, 
NEW  YORK  CITY 

Showing  how  the  Gary  Plan  may  be  adapted  to  the  Usual 
School  Plant 

THESE  twelve  schools,  I  am  informed,  are  the 
most  congested  of  any  group  of  twelve  schools  in 
New  York  City.  There  are  only  25,331  sittings 
in  these  schools  and  35,580  children  were  regis- 
tered December  31,  1914,  — 10,249  more  than 
sittings.  The  registration  is  140  per  cent  of  the 
sittings.  But  2500  of  the  present  sittings,  repre- 
senting 50  classrooms,  are  unsatisfactory.  There 
are  779  classes  in  the  schools  and  only  480  satis- 
factory classrooms.  The  classes  are  162  per  cent  of 
the  satisfactory  classrooms. 

Two  new  schools  are  under  construction,  and  a 
leased  school-building  of  fifteen  classrooms  is 
nearing  completion.  These  three  buildings  will 
provide  accommodations  for  4500  children  and 
103  additional  classes.  When  these  three  buildings 
are  completed,  there  will  be  583  satisfactory  class- 
rooms for  779  classes.  The  registration  of  the 
twelve  schools  increased  4000  pupils  from  Decem- 
ber 31,  1913,  to  December  31,  1914.  At  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  increase  the  new  buildings  will  not  take 
care  of  the  increase  in  school  attendance  during 


APPENDIX  183 

the  construction  of  the  said  buildings.  Four  new 
buildings  in  addition  to  those  under  construction 
are  needed  now  to  give  each  child  attending  the 
schools  a  satisfactory  school  seat.  Because  of  fi- 
nancial limitations  the  Board  of  Education  is 
asking  for  only  six  new  elementary-school  build- 
ings for  the  entire  city,  and  two  of  the  six,  to  cost 
approximately  $1,000,000,  are  proposed  for  the 
relief  of  the  twelve  schools  named.  If  the  two 
additional  schools  requested,  together  with  the 
three  under  construction,  could  be  made  ready 
for  use  to-morrow,  there  would  still  be  4000  chil- 
dren without  satisfactory  seats  and  no  provision 
for  normal  growth  in  the  immediate  future. 

I  herewith  submit  a  plan  for  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  twelve  schools  named,  so  that  1022 
classes  may  be  satisfactorily  accommodated  in 
place  of  the  583  now  provided  for. 

Under  the  New  Organization  unsatisfactory 
annexes  are  vacated,  and  unsatisfactory  class- 
rooms are  used  for  auditorium,  playrooms,  labora- 
tories, and  workshops.  In  place  of  the  779  classes 
and  35,580  children  now  in  the  schools,  room  will 
be  secured  for  242  additional  classes  and  a  total 
registration  of  46,000  children.  A  future  increase 
in  school  registration  of  approximately  10,000 
children  will  thus  be  provided  for. 

To  accomplish  this  reorganization,  rather  ex- 
tensive annexes  are  necessary  at  four  schools, 
costing  approximately  $475,000.  The  remaining 
eight  schools  need  only  slight  structural  changes 
and  additional  equipment,  costing  approximately 
$44,500.  Additional  land  should  be  purchased 
for  four  of  the  schools,  costing  approximately 


184  APPENDIX 

$225,000  [a  total  of  $744,500  for  twelve  schools,  as 
against  $1,000,000  for  two  new  plants  on  the  old 
plan]. 

The  cost  of  the  four  annexes,  the  remodeling, 
the  equipment,  and  the  additional  land  will  be 
much  less  than  the  cost  for  buildings,  equipment, 
and  sites  for  the  proposed  two  new  schools.  If 
the  proposed  two-new-schools  plan  is  followed,  a 
total  satisfactory  capacity  on  a  five-hour  single- 
school  system  for  671  classes  will  be  secured, 
which  is  108  classes  short  of  the  present  enroll- 
ment. If  the  reorganization  at  less  cost  than  the 
two-new-schools  plan  is  followed,  satisfactory 
accommodations  hi  a  longer  school  day  will  be 
secured  for  1022  classes,  which  is  243  classes  more 
than  are  now  enrolled,  —  a  difference  of  351 
classes  and  16,000  children. 

The  true  economy  of  the  New  Organization  is 
to  be  found  in  the  greater  educational  facilities 
provided  for  all  of  the  children,  rather  than  in 
the  great  capacity  of  the  plants  secured  under  the 
new  plan. 

The  upper  grades,  511  classes,  will  have  a  daily 
school  program  of  the  following  type:  80  minutes 
in  classroom  for  academic  work;  40  minutes  in 
gymnasium  or  play-yard  or  grounds  for  physical 
training  and  play;  40  minutes  for  general  exer- 
cises in  the  auditorium;  60  minutes  for  luncheon; 
140  minutes  hi  classroom  for  academic  work; 
and  80  minutes  for  drawing-rooms,  science  lab- 
oratories, or  manual-training  and  workshops. 
The  lower  grades,  511  classes,  will  have  a  program 
of  the  following  type:  same  as  for  upper  grades, 
except  that  the  last  period  of  80  minutes  will  be 


APPENDIX 


185 


given  to  play,  excursions,  library,  church  instruc- 
tion, or  at  home.  As  a  rule  the  children  will  have 
380  minutes  in  school  in  addition  to  the  luncheon 
hour,  in  place  of  the  300  minutes  provided  in  the 
regular  full-time  school.  Such  a  study-work-and- 
play  school  removes  the  children  very  largely 
from  the  demoralizing  lif e  of  the  street,  and  gives 
ample  time  for  academic,  physical,  and  prevoca- 
tional  training. 


SUBJECTS 

Average  time  per 
week  under  reg- 
ular    full-time 
organization  in 
New  York  City 
(minutes) 

Average  time  per 
week  under  New 
Organization  in 
Bronx  schools 
(minutes) 

Opening  exercises  

75 

100 

Music  

60 

100 

Physical  training,  recesses, 
Dhvsiolojrv,  hvciene  .  . 

120 

200 

English,  geography,  history, 
and  arithmetic  

1010 

1100 

Nature-study  and  science  .  . 
Drawing  

80 
85 

133 
133 

Construction  work  

70 

134 

Total  time  per  week  

1500 

1900 

Under  the  old  regular  full-time  organization, 
only  manual-training  and  cooking-rooms  are  pro- 
vided, and  for  seventh  and  eighth  grades  alone. 
Science  laboratories  for  individual  work,  and 
drawing  studios  with  special  equipment,  are  not 
provided  at  all. 

Under  the  New  Organization,  manual-training, 


188 '  APPENDIX 

cooking-and  sewing-shops,  drawing-studios  with 
special  equipment,  and  science  laboratories  for 
individual  work  by  students  are  provided  for  all 
the  above  grades.  Besides,  there  will  be  sixty- 
three  additional  prevocational  workshops  with 
special  equipment  and  teachers  distributed  advan- 
tageously in  the  twelve  schools.  Also  there  will 
be  provided  gardens,  better  auditoriums  and 
music-rooms,  better  classrooms,  gymnasiums  and 
playgrounds. 

DESCRIPTION  OP  SCHOOLS 

Indicating  in  Detail  Necessary  Changes  to  introduce 
Wirt  Plan 

Public  School  28  has  fifty-eight  regular  classes 
in  forty-five  regular  classrooms,  with  one  wood- 
working shop  and  one  cooking-room.  The  ground 
floor  play-yard  and  fine  basement  playroom  pro- 
vide ample  play-space  for  nine  classes  at  one  time. 
There  is  a  large  gymnasium  on  the  top  floor  that 
is  not  desirable  for  play,  and  should  be  used  for 
drawing-rooms.  The  auditorium  on  the  fourth 
floor  should  be  made  into  six  regular  classrooms 
by  installing  permanent  partitions  for  the  sliding 
partitions.  The  wall  partitions  should  be  removed 
from  the  four  combination  auditorium  and  class- 
rooms on  the  second  floor,  and  the  auditorium 
thus  secured  should  be  seated  for  a  permanent 
auditorium.  Since  four  classrooms  are  thus  used 
for  the  auditorium,  there  will  be  left  only  forty- 
one  regular  classrooms.  Thirty-six  of  these  should 
be  used  for  regular  class  work.  Two  of  the  five 
remaining  classrooms  should  be  used  for  science 


APPENDIX  187 

laboratories,  one  for  a  music  studio,  and  two  for 
workshops.  These  five  special  rooms,  with  the 
manual-training  shop  and  cooking-room  and 
drawing-studios,  will  provide  facilities  for  nine 
classes  in  science,  drawing,  music,  manual-train- 
ing or  shopwork,  at  one  time.  Seventy-two  regu- 
lar classes  may  be  accommodated  in  this  school 
with  thirty-six  classes  in  thirty-six  class-rooms, 
nine  in  the  auditorium,  nine  at  play,  nine  in 
special  work,  and  nine  primary  classes  with  an 
extra  period  for  play,  religious  instruction  in 
churches,  excursions,  library  work,  etc. 

With  a  full  register  of  classes,  seventy-six  teach- 
ers should  be  employed.  Fifty-six  teachers  should 
teach  the  history,  geography,  arithmetic,  lan- 
guage, and  reading,  and  manage  the  auditorium. 
Two  teachers  should  have  charge  of  the  music, 
four  of  the  play  and  physical  training,  one  of  the 
library,  two  of  the  olrawing,  two  of  the  science 
laboratories,  and  nine  of  the  manual  training, 
domestic  science  and  art,  and  the  shopwork. 

There  are  thirteen  regular  classes  in  the  eight- 
room  frame  annex,  which  must  be  used  for  class 
purposes  in  order  to  enable  the  city  to  hold  the 
property.  A  special  program  can  be  arranged  for 
this  annex,  to  accommodate  twelve  classes. 

Public  School  28  and  the  annex  can  therefore 
accommodate  eighty-four  classes,  a  gain  of  thir- 
teen classes  over  the  present  enrollment,  and 
thirty-one  classes  more  than  the  normal  capa- 
city of  fifty-three  classes  in  a  single-school  sys- 
tem. 

The  only  expense  will  be  the  placing  of  perma- 
nent partitions  in  the  auditorium  classrooms,  and 


188  APPENDIX 

the  equipment  of  the  auditorium,  laboratories, 
studios  and  shops,  —  approximately  $10,000. 

Public  School  5  has  twenty-seven  classes  in 
nineteen  regular  classrooms,  a  good  auditorium 
and  two  portable  schools.  Four  classes  are  now 
using  the  auditorium  as  classrooms,  with  only 
curtains  for  partitions.  There  is  play  space  in  the 
basement  play-yard  for  six  classes  to  play  at  once. 

By  removing  the  portable  schools  a  satisfac- 
tory outdoor  playground  can  be  secured.  The 
basement  has  a  fine  shoproom,  large  enough  to 
accommodate  two  small  shops.  In  these  shops  and 
the  nineteen  classrooms,  with  the  auditorium  and 
play  facilities,  thirty-two  classes  may  be  accom- 
modated by  using  sixteen  of  the  most  desirable 
rooms  for  classrooms.  This  is  five  classes  more 
than  are  now  in  the  school,  and  thirteen  more  than 
the  capacity  of  the  main  building  on  a  five-hour 
single-school  system. 

The  cost  of  moving  the  portables  should  be 
charged  to  the  school  to  which  they  are  moved. 
The  cost  for  equipment  and  remodeling  should  be 
approximately  $5,000. 

Public  School  32  has  sixty  classes  in  thirty-eight 
classrooms,  with  one  workshop  and  one  cooking- 
room.  Five  classrooms  and  one  cooking-room  are 
now  in  a  gymnasium  with  only  curtains  for  parti- 
tions. Three  classrooms  are  unsatisfactory  base- 
ment rooms,  one  is  an  unsatisfactory  attic  room, 
and  twelve  classrooms  are  combination  auditorium 
and  classrooms. 

By  placing  permanent  partitions  in  the  combi- 


APPENDIX  189 

nation  auditoriums,  twenty-nine  satisfactory  class- 
rooms and  five  shoprooms  may  be  secured.  The 
gymnasium  and  play-yard  are  ample  for  a  large 
school.  The  building  is  close  to  Bronx  Park  for 
large  outdoor  play-yard  and  for  gardens.  The 
present  site  can  be  enlarged  without  great  cost. 
I  believe  that  it  is  desirable  to  make  Public  School 
32  a  seventy-two-room  school,  which  will  enable 
it  to  accommodate  twelve  more  classes  than  are 
now  in  the  school. 

An  annex  should  be  built  containing  swimming- 
pool,  auditorium,  five  shops,  and  seven  classrooms, 
costing  approximately  $100,000. 


Ill 


ON  THE 

REORGANIZATION  OF  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  89,  BROOKLYN, 
NEW  YORK. 

Showing  the  Adaptation  of  the  Gary  Plan  to  the  Usual 
School  Plant 

THIS  school  was  the  first  to  be  reorganized  in  New 
York  City  under  the  Gary  plan.  The  following  quota- 
tions from  Superintendent  Wirt's  report  indicate  the 
changes  that  were  made  in  transforming  a  congested 
elementary  school  into  a  smoothly  running  Gary  school 
on  the  duplicate  plan:  — 

Prior  to  November  6,  1914,  there  were  forty 
classes  attending  School  89.  Twelve  of  the  forty 
classes,  representing  the  upper  grades,  were  on  full 
time,  having  the  exclusive  use  of  twelve  of  the 
twenty-six  classrooms.  The  remaining  twenty- 
eight  classes  were  organized  in  groups  of  fourteen 
classes  each  and  were  accommodated  in  the  re- 
maining fourteen  classrooms,  small  auditorium, 
and  five  cellar  rooms,  with  a  modification  of  the 
accompanying  program.  (See  p.  191). 

Since  in  this  program  twelve  classrooms  were 
used  exclusively  for  twelve  classes,  the  burden  of 
the  overcrowding  was  placed  entirely  upon  the 
remaining  fourteen  classrooms.  These  fourteen 
rooms  had  a  multiple  use  for  eight  hours  a  day,  but 
the  auditorium  and  playground  were  used  only 


APPENDIX 


191 


School  hours 


Fourteen  classrooms 


Exercises  and  study  in 
auditorium  and  play- 
ground 


8.30-  9.30 

9.30-10.30 
10.30-11.30 

11.30-12.30 

12.30-  1.30 

1.30-  2.80 

2.30-  3.30 
3.30-  4.30 


First  group  — . 

14  classes 
First  group 
Second  group  - 

14  classes 
Second  group 

First  group 
First  group 

Second  group 
Second  group 


Second  group 
First  group 

First  group  — 

at  lunch 
Second  group  - 

at  lunch 
Second  group 


two  hours  a  day.  This  means  that  the  auditorium 
and  playground  were  congested  during  the  short 
time  that  they  were  in  use.  When  it  rained  and  all 
the  children  were  required  to  be  in  the  building 
from  9.30  to  11.30,  nine  classes  were  forced  to  use 
the  five  cellar  rooms  at  one  time  as  study-rooms. 
No  provision  was  made  for  the  systematic  use  of 
other  child-welfare  agencies. 

The  old  program  was  not  intended  to  secure 
greater  facilities  for  children  than  the  ordinary 
single-system  school  offers. 

The  principle  underlying  the  old  program  was 
that  of  securing  the  traditional  five-hour  school 
day  by  supplementing  the  four  hours  in  the  class- 
room with  an  additional  hour  in  playground  and 
auditorium.  Unfortunately  the  latter  hour  was 
used  as  much  as  possible  for  study  in  quarters  that 
were  never  intended  for  use  as  a  study-room  and 


192  APPENDIX 

cannot  be  made  satisfactory  for  study  No  one 
offers  the  argument  that  such  a  five-hour  school  is 
better  than  or  even  as  good  as  five  hours  of  regular 
classroom  work  in  the  ordinary  single-system 
school. 

This  program  was  not  intended  to  secure  greater 
facilities  for  children  than  the  ordinary  single- 
system  school  offers.  The  purpose  was  to  secure 
as  nearly  as  possible  the  traditional  work  of  the 
regular  five-hour  full-time  school,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered only  as  a  temporary  expedient  until  a 
sufficient  number  of  new  schools  could  be  built  to 
provide  the  regulation  full-time  school.  Since  the 
main  object  was  the  building  of  additional  school- 
buildings  for  permanent  relief,  no  funds  could  be 
expended  upon  this  temporary  double-system 
expedient. 

In  contrast  to  this,  the  new  program  at  Public 
School  89  is  in  no  sense  an  effort  to  relieve  part- 
time  by  giving  the  children  as  nearly  as  possible 
a  five-hour  traditional  school  day  until  a  new 
building  can  be  built. 

The  sole  purpose  determining  the  new  program 
now  in  use  at  this  school  is  that  of  securing  a  six- 
hour  day  and  much  richer  opportunities  in  a  study- 
work-and-play  school  with  a  coordination  of  the 
activities  of  all  child-welfare  agencies. 

By  making  the  following  improvements  at 
Public  School  89,  the  increase  in  capacity  and 
additional  facilities  can  be  made  permanent  —  a 
gymnasium  and  swimming-pool,  two  rooms  for 
branch  of  the  public  library,  equipment  for  science 
laboratories  and  auditorium,  wardrobes  for  sixteen 
classes,  permanent  playground,  and  drawing-  and 


APPENDIX  193 

music-studios.  With  the  exception  of  the  play- 
ground, the  above  will  cost  approximately  $35,000. 

The  cost  of  the  site  and  the  proposed  new  fifty- 
one  unit  school-building,  to  relieve  Public  School 
89  and  two  other  buildings,  will  provide  the  funds 
for  similar  changes  in  ten  schools  after  the  plan  at 
Public  School  89.  These  changes  would  make  pos- 
sible a  permanent  increase  in  capacity  of  not  less 
than  two  hundred  classrooms,  since  in  the  more 
modern  schools  a  less  expenditure  will  secure 
greater  capacity.  Since  a  fifty-one  unit  building 
adds  accommodation  for  only  forty-eight  tradi- 
tional full-time  classes,  the  satisfactory  accom- 
modation of  sixteen  additional  classes  at  Public 
School  89  would  justify  the  expenditure  of  one 
third  the  cost  of  the  new  building  and  site  upon 
Public  School  89,  or  approximately  $170,000. 
But,  as  has  just  been  pointed  out,  it  is  not  nec- 
essary to  spend  anything  like  this  amount. 

Under  the  old  program  there  were  only  forty 
classes,  but  one  class  was  very  large  and  was 
divided  into  two  sections  with  two  teachers  in 
charge.  The  number  of  pupils  attending  this 
school  is  increasing  rapidly,  and  therefore  a  pro- 
gram for  forty-two  classes  is  planned. 

The  forty-two  classes  in  the  New  Program  are 
divided  into  two  duplicate  schools  of  twenty-one 
classes  each.  In  the  following  programs  these 
duplicate  schools  are  designated  as  the  "X" 
School  and  the  " Y"  School. 

The  X  School:  Twenty-one  of  the  classrooms  are 
used  for  the  desired  academic  instruction  in  the 
regular  school  subjects,  —  arithmetic,  language, 
reading,  history,  and  geography.  The  five  remain- 


194  APPENDIX 

ing  classrooms  are  used  for  the  special  school  sub- 
jects, —  science,  drawing,  and  music.  In  addition 
to  the  twenty-six  classrooms,  the  school  has  a 
manual-training  shop,  a  domestic-science  labora- 
tory, a  small  auditorium,  five  cellar  playrooms, 
and  a  kindergarten.  Because  the  special  rooms 
are  not  yet  equipped  (January  9,  1915),  for  the 
time  being  they  are  used  for  additional  regular 
class  work.  Since  there  is  no  library  or  librarian, 
and  since  the  manual-training  and  cooking  teach- 
ers are  at  the  building  only  half-time,  two  extra 
special  teachers  are  in  charge  of  the  playground. 

The  X  School  has  the  following  activities  and 
facilities  for  carrying  them  on :  — 

Type  of  work  Facilities  used  by  each  type 

of  work 
Academic  instruction. .   21  classrooms. 

General  exercises Auditorium. 

Play      and      physical 

training Playground,         playrooms, 

pool,  gymnasium. 

Special  work 2    manual-training     shops, 

2  science  laboratories,  2 
drawing  studios,  1  music 
studio,  1  public-library 
branch. 

The  twenty-one  classes  are  divided  into  three 
divisions  of  seven  classes  each,  as  follows :  — 
Division  1  —  seven  classes,  grades  6,  7,  8. 
Division  2  —  seven  classes,  grades  3,  4,  5. 
Division  3  —  seven  classes,  grades  1  and  2. 
All  these  twenty-one  classes,  from  the  first  grade 
to  the  eighth,  take  part  in  these  activities  accord- 
ing to  the  following  program:  — 


APPENDIX 


195 


School 
hours 

Academic 
instruction 

General 
exercises 

Play,  etc. 

Special 

8.30-  9.20 

Arithmetic, 

all  divisions 

9.20-10.10 

Language, 

all  divisions 

10.10-11.00 

Div.  1. 

Div.  3. 

Div.  2. 

11.00-12.00 

Entire  X  school  at 

luncheon 

12.00-  1.00 

Reading, 

all  divisions 

1.00-  1.50 

History,   geogra- 

phy, all  divisions 

1.50-  2.40 

Div.  3. 

Div.  2. 

Div.  1. 

2.40-  8.30 

Div.  2. 

Div.  3. 

Div.  1. 

3.30-  4.30 

Div.  1. 

Summary  of  time  schedule:  Pupils'  time,  minutes  per 
week.  (All  pupils  have  twenty  per  cent  more  time  in  school.) 


School 
department 

Division  1. 

Division  2. 

Division  S. 

X 

school 

N.  Y. 
mini- 
mum 

X 

school 

N.Y. 

mini- 
mum 

X 

school 

N.Y. 

minimum 

Academic... 
Auditorium  . 
Play  . 

1050 
250 
after 
school 
500 

840 
75 

80 

280 

1050 
250 

250 
250 

840 
75 

150 
250 

1050 
250 

500 
In- 
cluded 
in  aca- 
demic 
time. 

880-1090 

75 

180-  300 

Work  

Total  

1800 
1800 

1275 
1500 

1800 
1800 

1315 
1500 

1800 
1800 

1255-1345 
1200-1500 

Fulltime... 

196  APPENDIX 

The  actual  time  spent  by  the  teachers  according 
to  the  New  Program  is  no  longer  than  the  estab- 
lished time.  Each  teacher  has  210  minutes  hi 
regular  activities,  and  100  in  special  activities, 
with  20  minutes  for  assembling  of  pupils,  a  total  of 
330  minutes,  which  is  the  established  time. 

The  two  periods  hi  special  activities  should  be 
departmentalized  by  certain  teachers  giving  both 
periods  to  play  and  physical  training,  and  other 
teachers  giving  both  periods  to  music,  drawing, 
and  science,  etc.  The  manual-training  teachers 
and  the  public  librarian  release  two  teachers  from 
the  work  periods,  who  may  be  assigned  to  play 
and  physical  training.  Six  teachers  should  run  the 
auditorium  period,  and  the  remaining  teacher  of 
the  Division  should  be  assigned  to  play  and  physi- 
cal training.  The  only  extra  teachers  are  the 
manual-training  teachers.  If  there  are  a  few  teach- 
ers who  cannot  do  the  work  of  the  special  activities 
successfully,  they  may  give  all  of  this  tune  to  reg- 
ular school  activities.  The  teachers  so  displaced 
from  regular  activities  may  give  all  of  their  time 
to  physical  training  and  play,  music,  drawing,  etc. 

About  hah*  of  the  teachers  will  have  an  extra 
50-minute  period  in  the  school  for  grading  papers, 
planning  school  work,  looking  after  individual 
needs  of  children,  or  professional  study.  In  my 
judgment  it  would  be  well  if  all  teachers  did  their 
supplementary  school  work  at  the  school  rather 
than  at  home.  Less  energy  will  be  required  to  do 
this  work  at  the  school  than  at  home,  and  the 
public  will  have  a  better  understanding  of  the 
teacher's  work. 


APPENDIX  197 

The  Y  School:  Unfortunately  the  program  'de- 
scribed requires  twenty-six  classrooms  for  twenty- 
one  classes  of  children  in  addition  to  the  audi- 
torium, play  space,  library,  workshops,  etc.  No 
facility  during  the  school  day  is  used  more  than 
hah*  the  time  by  the  X  School.  Fortunately  the 
auditorium  need  be  large  enough  to  accommodate 
only  one  third  of  the  X  School.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  play  space  and  the  special  work  facilities. 
There  is  a  great  economy  in  using  the  facilities 
named  for  three  periods  by  alternate  groups,  each 
representing  one  third  of  the  school.  But  a  higher 
first  cost  and  a  greater  operation  and  maintenance 
cost  would  be  justifiable  in  all  these  facilities,  in- 
cluding the  regular  classrooms,  if  they  could  be 
used  longer  and  accommodate  more  children. 

Since  the  X  School  can  use  any  of  these  facilities 
only  half  of  the  time,  what  objection  can  there  be 
to  another  school  of  twenty-one  classes  using  the 
facilities  when  the  X  School  cannot  use  them? 
On  p.  198  is  shown  a  program  for  such  a  duplicate 
school,  designated  Y. 

The  Y  School  has  the  same  time  as  the  X  School, 
for  both  pupils  and  teachers.  Neither  school  could 
use  any  facility  any  more  if  the  other  school  were 
not  there,  but  both  schools  have  better  facilities 
every  hour  of  the  day  because  the  other  school  is 
there.  Forty-two  classes  of  children  are  thus  ac- 
commodated in  twenty-six  classrooms.  Instead  of 
building  a  sixteen-room  additional  school,  with 
its  initial  cost  of  construction,  site,  janitor  service, 
heating,  maintenance,  etc.,  an  equivalent  expendi- 
ture can  be  made  for  the  permanent  improvement 
and  increased  operating  cost  of  the  twenty-six- 
room  school. 


198 


APPENDIX 


Scliool 
hours 

Academic 
instruction 

General 
exercises 

Play, 
physical 
training 

Special 
work 

8.30-  9.20 

Div.  2. 

Div.  3. 

Div.  1. 

9.20-10.10 

Div.  3. 

Div.  2. 

Div.  1. 

10.10-11.00 

Arithmetic, 

all  divisions 

11.00-12.00 

Language, 

all  divisions 

12.00-  1.00 

Entire  school  at 

luncheon 

1.00-  1.50 

Div.  1. 

Div.  3. 

Div.  2. 

1.50-  2.40 

Reading, 

all  divisions 

2.40-  3.30 

History,   geogra- 

phy, all  divisions 

3.30-  4.30 

Div.  1. 

(The  blank  spaces  represent  the  periods  when  the  X  School  is  using  the 
facilities.) 

While  this  program  makes  two  schools  in  one 
possible,  primarily  it  is  planned  to  provide  a  longer 
school-day,  i.e.,  six  hours  in  place  of  five,  and 
greater  facilities  for  each  child  during  each  of  the 
six  hours.  One  hundred  minutes'  daily  play  is 
given  to  the  primary  grades,  for  play  takes  the 
place  of  work  for  small  children.  This  play  is 
gradually  transformed  into  work,  fifty  minutes' 
work  and  fifty  minutes'  play  in  the  intermediate 
grades,  and  one  hundred  minutes'  work  hi  the 
grammar  grades,  as  the  older  children  use  their 
after-school  leisure  time  for  play.  Thus  the  play 
impulse  is  transformed  into  the  work  impulse. 
Productive  activities  are  substituted  for  non- 
productive activities.  Work  is  made  constructive 
play. 


IV 

ECONOMY  OF  PLAYGROUND  MANAGEMENT 
IN  GARY  SCHOOL,  AS  CONTRASTED  WITH 
PUBLIC  PLAYGROUND 

SUPERINTENDENT  WIRT,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Department  of  Superintendence  of  the  National 
Education  Association,  St.  Louis,  February, 
1912  spoke  as  follows:  — 

We  have  not  utilized  the  school  plants  com- 
pletely unless  they  are  used  for  recreation  and 
social  centers  by  adults.  Fortunately,  a  school 
plant  that  provides  for  the  constructive  play  and 
recreation  activities  of  children  is  also  most  ad- 
mirably adapted  for  similar  activities  with  adults. 
The  playground,  gymnasiums,  swimming-pools, 
auditorium,  club  and  social  rooms,  library,  shops, 
laboratories,  etc.,  make  a  complete  social  and  re- 
creation center  for  adults.  Experience  has  dem- 
onstrated that  the  facilities  for  academic  instruc- 
tion add  also  to  the  attractiveness  of  the  plant  as 
a  social  and  recreation  center. 

Compared  with  the  cost  of  such  facilities  and 
their  use  when  separated  from  the  school  plant, 
the  economy  of  the  combined  playground,  work- 
shop, and  school  plant  is  indeed  surprising.  The 
city  of  Chicago  has  a  most  elaborate  system  of 
recreation  parks  and  field-houses.  Selecting  the 
eleven  most  successful  parks  of  the  South  Park 
Commission,  we  may  compare  the  total  cost  and 
use  of  the  eleven  parks  with  the  cost  and  use  of 


200 


APPENDIX 


one  Gary  school  plant.  Note  that  the  attendance 
of  the  parks  is  the  total,  not  the  average,  for  the 
eleven  parks.  Also  note  that  the  cost  of  the  school 
includes  the  furnishing  of  complete  school  facili- 
ties for  twenty-seven  hundred  children,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  social  and  recreation  features. 

Chicago  parks  and  Gary  school  compared  as  to  costs 


Items 

Total  far 
eleven  parks 
in  Chicago 

One  school 
in  Gary 

Population  

800,000 

20,000 

First  cost,  less  land  

$2,000,000 

$300,000 

Annual  maintenance  

$440,000 

$100,000 

Annual  attendance:  — 
Indoor  gymnasium  

310,000 

1,000,000 

Shower  baths  

1,385,000 

500,000 

Outdoor  gymnasium  

2,000,000 

2,000,000 

Swimming-pool  

735,000 

300,000 

Assembly  halls  

270,000 

1,000,000 

Reading-rooms  

600,000 

1,000,000 

70,000 

50,000 

Lunchrooms  

620,000 

20,000 

TABLE  SHOWING  HOW  CAPACITY  OF  SMALL 
SCHOOL  PLANT  MAY  BE  DOUBLED 

Increasing  School  Capacity 

A  —  Traditional  school  plant:  8  rooms;  820  chBd- 
ren;  grounds  160  x  160;  playgrounds,  80  x  160,  40 
square  feet  per  pupil:  — 

Cost  of  building  and  equipment $55,000 

Cost  of  land 5,000 

10  per  cent  on  investment 6,000 

Annual  operation 2,000 

Cost  of  instruction  per  year 10,000 

B  —  Gary  plan  for  320  more  pupils:  — 

Additional  cost  of  land $5,000 

Additional  cost  of  instruction  per  year. . .     10,000 

Costs  of  building  and  equipment,  operation  and 
maintenance  not  increased,  though  capacity  is  doubled. 


INDEX 


Administration,  86. 
All-year  school,  76,  77. 
"Application"  work,  23,  52, 

72,  73,  93. 
Art-studios  and  work,  24,  28, 

46. 
Auditorium,  26,   50,  92,  111, 

138. 

Bluffton,  9,  10,  76,  162. 
Board  of  Education,  10,  86. 
Botany  work,  29,  46. 
"Boyville,"  137. 
Burns,  Dean  W.  P.,  149,  164, 
175. 

Chemistry  work,  29,  127. 

Chicago,  8,  20,  21,  199. 

"  Clearing-house  for  children's 

activities,"  52. 

Commercial  studies,  30, 48, 49. 
Community  center,  83. 
"  Complete  school,"  the,  17, 18. 

Departmental  teaching,  87. 
Dewey,   Prof.   John,   19,   35, 

132,  140,  144,  176. 
Director  of  Industrial  Work, 

87. 

Domestic  science,  30,  47. 
Duplicate-school  plan,  64, 78. 

Economy,  79,  80,  201. 

Emerson  School,  13, 14, 18, 20, 
22,  23,  25,  27,  30,  74,  80,  87, 
116,  128,  137,  138,  145,  166. 


English  work,  115,  139,  140. 
Enrollment,  181. 
Ettinger  plan,  157. 
Evening  school,  81,  82. 
Executive  principal,  86. 
Expenditures,  179. 
"Expression"  work,  113. 
Extra-curricular       activities, 
139. 

Farm,  school,  136. 

Fernandez,  Mrs.  Alice  Bar- 
rows-, 147,  159. 

Financing  of  schools,  6. 

Foreigners  in  Gary,  5. 

Froebel  School,  13,  14,  18,  20, 
23,  25,  31,  45,  51,  74,  133, 
145,  166. 

Gardens,  school,  22. 
Gary,  3-8,  57,  145. 
Gymnasiums,  22. 

Helper  or  observer  system,  86, 

100,  108,  122,  173. 
History  work,  27,  116. 

Industrial  shops,  30,  44,  45, 
133. 

Jefferson  School,  13,  23,  30, 
33,  54,  65,  80,  81,  147,  162. 

Laboratories,  science,  29. 
Laundry,  30. 
Libraries,  school,  25. 


204 


INDEX 


Manual  training,  40. 
Montessori  method,  the,  153. 
Museum,  school,  24,  121. 

New  York  City,  8,  12,  18,  88, 
55,  61.  146,  147,  157,  160, 
162, 174,  182. 

Observer  or  helper  system,  86, 
100,  108,  122,  173. 

"Peak-loads,"  63,  64. 

Pestalozzi  School,  13. 

Physics  work,  29,  125. 

"Platoon"  system  (duplicate- 
school),  64. 

Playgrounds,  20,  141,  199. 

Pottery-shop,  30,  45. 

Printery,  30,  45,  124. 

Programs,  66,  69,  70,  73,  74, 
191,  194,  195,  198. 

Promotion,  102. 

Public  utility,  58. 


Register  teacher,  97. 
Religious  instruction,  53, 
160. 


54, 


Saturday  school,  38,  104,  133. 

School  bank,  48. 

School  community,  87,  40,  44, 

48,  52,  55. 
School  day,  95. 
School  desks,  27. 
School  gardens,  22. 
School  libraries,  25. 
School  store,  49. 
School  zoo,  22. 
Science  work,  29,  46,  122. 
Self-government,  137. 


Shops,  industrial,  SO,  44,  45, 

133. 

Shopwork,  156. 
Special  activities,  15,  74. 
"Street-and-alley   time,"  38, 

75. 

Students'  Council,  138. 
Studios,  art,  24,  28,  46. 
Supervisors  of  instruction,  86. 
Swimming-pools,  22. 

Teachers,  91,  149. 
Teachers'  assistants,  99. 
Teacher-workmen,  41,  87. 
Terman,  Prof.  Lewis,  19. 
Trade  schools,  44. 
Training-school  for  teachers, 

96. 
Truancy,  156. 

Unit  school-plant  organiza- 
tion, 88. 

U.S.  Steel  Corporation,  1,  2,  3, 
145. 

Updegraff,  Dr.  Harlan,  141. 

Vacation  school,  88. 
Vocational  guidance,  110. 
Vocational  training,  41,  156, 
169. 

Wirt,  Superintendent  Wil- 
liam, 9,  10,  17,  28,  33,  39, 
43,  52,  58,  59,  76.  77,  81,  84, 
90,  101,  146,  158,  160. 

Workmen-teachers,  41,  87. 

"X"  and  "  Y"  schools,  64,  69. 
Y.M.C.A.,  37,  53,  55,  146. 
Zoology  work,  29,  46.  124. 


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